Thousands who answered HSE’s ‘Be on Call’ drive must apply again for jab roles
THOUSANDS of healthcare staff who answered the HSE’s ‘Be on Call for Ireland’ initiative will have to go through the application process again if they want to work as Covid19 vaccinators.
Information provided by medical workers who applied to the initiative almost a year ago and were not recruited to work in Covid-related roles is now deemed out of date and the Garda vetting forms submitted have expired.
Last Thursday, the HSE launched a mass recruitment drive appealing for doctors, nurses, midwives, physiotherapists, pharmacists and paramedics to help administer the Covid-19 vaccine.
They will assist at 34 vaccination centres across the
State, with HSE boss Paul Reid setting a target of vaccinating one million people a month from April.
Last April, 75,000 people, including nursing, medical, dental, health and social care professionals and ambulance personnel, applies to the HSE’s ‘Be on Call for Ireland’ initiative, a drive to support the health service during the pandemic.
The HSE said approximately 2,000 of the 75,000 applicants indicated they were available to work and had the relevant experience needed by the services at that time. To date, 330 people have been recruited.
Applicants to the initiative who are interested in vaccinator jobs will now need to make a new application for the role, with the HSE citing expired Garda vetting forms as one of the reasons why they could not be recruited from the current database.
“The information provided in early 2020 will now be out of date from a compliance perspective,” a HSE spokesperson said.
“For example, any Garda vetting will now have expired and a new vetting application needs to be made for the specific role of vaccinator, information on live professional registration status is needed, references need to be reflective of any recent work, an occupational health assessment needs to be carried out in relation to the vaccinator role etc.”
The HSE said that the relevant disciplines on the ‘Be on Call for Ireland’ database had already been notified of the advertised vaccinator recruitment campaign and how to apply.
“We appreciate that applicants may have already engaged with the recruitment process for Covid-19-related roles – however, safe recruitment processes require that we have the most up-to-date information that is relevant to
the specific role of vaccinator,” a spokesperson said.
Earlier this month, Taoiseach Micheál Martin expressed confidence that there would be enough medical professionals to administer the vaccines.
“That was a concern maybe a month ago (that there wouldn’t be enough vaccinators) but it was quantified at our meeting with members of the workforce planning around vaccination and what I have just learned is that there is great interest among retired health professions,” he said.
“People have responded to the call from the HSE in terms of coming back in to vaccinate so we have retired medical practitioners, retired GPs, nursing professionals in different capacities – there is a broad pool of people we can draw from that will add to the existing health service workforce.”
The Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council (PHECC), which regulates pre-hospital emergency care and registers practitioners, has called for volunteers to be used during the Covid-19 vaccine rollout.
The HSE and Department of Health have been asked to consider using volunteers from organisations including the Order of Malta and Civil Defence to administer jabs.
There are 5,500 PHECCregistered practitioners – emergency medical technicians (EMTs), paramedics and advanced paramedics – trained to administer intramuscular injections.
Of these, 2,500 work for two statutory providers – the National Ambulance Service and Dublin Fire Brigade.
The remaining PHECCregistered practitioners work in private companies and the voluntary sector, are available to the system and can be called on to assist in the national vaccination programme as vaccinators, according to the PHECC.