VACCINE INVITES TEXTED TOO LATE
As errors pile up, top hospital apologises after vulnerable miss out on their vaccine
A TOP hospital has apologised to patients for the latest vaccine error, after vulnerable patients were sent texts for appointments two days too late.
The Irish Daily Mail has learned that a number of elderly patients received a message yesterday about their vaccine appointments for Wednesday, two days earlier.
Tallaght University Hospital has told the Mail an ‘IT issue’ was to blame and that it ‘sincerely apologises’ for this error. The hospital said it is working to reschedule the patients for their shots. However, neither the hospital nor the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group, which Tallaght Hospital is part of, could answer queries last night on how many patients have been affected in the latest of a series of vaccine controversies exposed by the Mail in the past week.
Kildare County councillor Chris
Pender told the Mail that a constituent had received one of the out-of-date texts from the Tallaght hospital. The vaccinations were scheduled for Citywest.
The constituent is in Cohort 4 of the vaccination rollout – which is people aged 16 to 69 who are at high risk from Covid-19 – and is also being treated out of the kidney unit at the hospital. Cllr Pender said he understands that mistakes are made but added that it is ‘ridiculous’ for this person to receive a text two days after the appointment date.
This presents yet another headache for health chiefs with the vaccine programme, which has been plagued by controversies such as the misuse of vaccines in the Beacon private hospital and people using the HSE portal to jump the queue, all of which were revealed by the Mail over the past week.
Social Democrats councillor Mr Pender said: ‘I get it, people make mistakes, but my problem here is this person is rather old and the only reason that it was chased up on was he has a younger daughter who chased up on it.
‘My issue here is there are any number of older people out there who do not have children who are either currently in their lives or caring for them or whatever.
‘So, what if there are a number of older people out there who received a text, see a late appointment on it and assume they’ve missed it. We can’t have older people, from the correct cohort, missing out on vaccines because of screw-ups.’
In a statement to the Mail last night, the hospital’s chief executive, Lucy Nugent, said: ‘TUH is working closely with the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group and the HSE Citywest vaccination clinic to ensure that patients in the Group 4 Cohort are offered the opportunity to receive a Covid vaccine.
‘TUH experienced an IT issue in relation to making appointments for some patients whose vaccinations we sought to schedule this week at Citywest.
‘This led to their appointment notifications arriving too late for them to attend. We apologise very sincerely to those affected by this issue. The Citywest team has put a plan in place to contact this group of patients individually and arrange an appointment that suits them as soon as possible.’
Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane told the Mail: ‘We’ve had a number of problems with the IT system and the portals.
‘Obviously, people are getting their appointments by text or by email after they were due to arrive; is it no wonder that we’ve had so many no-shows, and you have to ask the question: is that part of the reason?
‘A system that doesn’t give patients information on time, and in fact gives them the information after the event, is obviously not fit for purpose. We’ve also seen the system itself being compromised where people who are not frontline workers are able to register and get vaccinated.
‘While the HSE say the numbers are small, any number of people who are able to get around the system is not acceptable.’
Deputy Cullinane said his concern is that all these issues are coming just as the country is moving into a critical phase of the vaccine rollout.
He said there are some issues that the Government and the HSE can’t control, such as supplies, but that they can control ‘a lot of the problems’ on the IT side and the logistical side. ‘I do have a concern that while we had a lot of problems in the first quarter, we are now going into a critical phase,’ he said.
‘We are going to see a significant ratcheting up of numbers of people who will be vaccinated, and you would have to ask the question: is the IT system, is the portal system and is the system administering the vaccines fit for purpose?’
He added: ‘That now remains to be seen but what we have seen so far doesn’t inspire confidence.
‘We simply cannot continue to see the type of errors and mistakes and also the other issues that we saw in the Beacon Hospital and the Coombe Hospital.’
In a statement, the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group said that scheduling has been ‘challenging as this is a new process’. It said: ‘We are working to resolve this issue and ensure this does not happen again.’
Junior Minister with responsibility for the Office of Public Works Patrick O’Donovan said it was ‘scandalous’ that people have been jumping the queue in order to get their vaccines ahead of more vulnerable people.
‘I’ve had people on to my office, people on the frontline, that feel hard done by. I have no problem saying it,’ he told Newstalk.
‘I’ve had family carers who are locked into their houses for the last 13 months ... who feel really aggrieved, and it’s very difficult to defend it.
‘My heart breaks for them. It’s not good enough and the system has to respond to it and the system is too slow,’ he added.
Twitter user Markie Ó Maoldomhnaigh said that a relative of his received a text at 3.30am yesterday informing them of a vaccine appointment in Citywest on Thursday.
‘Just need to jump in my time machine,’ he said. And Finn Keyes, another Twitter user, said: ‘My dad got a text this morning [yesterday] telling him to come to Citywest for his first shot... on March 31.’
As of Tuesday, there have been 840,561 doses of vaccine administered. This includes 603,802 first doses and 236,759 second doses.
‘It doesn’t inspire confidence’