Doctor tells of stress over vaccine shortage
GP still has no idea of delivery date, despite dozens of calls
A GP who still has no idea when she will get Covid-19 vaccines for her patients over the age of 85 has spoken of the stress of not having a delivery date.
Dr Angela O’Donoghue said she was unable to “buddy up” with another medical practice to get vaccines.
Dr O’Donoghue is a partner in a medical practice in Tralee, Co Kerry, that has 150 patients aged over 70. The HSE says doctors with fewer than 200 patients over 70 should link up in a buddy arrangement with another medical practice in order to get a batch of vaccines.
“We couldn’t find a buddy practice and contacted the Irish Medical Organisation and heard nothing. I was weeks trying to chase it up,” Dr O’Donoghue said.
She even received a phone call from a TD advocating that one of her patients should receive the vaccine, but the under-pressure medic could not say when she would have any to administer.
Last Wednesday, she got the news that vaccines would be sent to her practice, but she was given no delivery date.
“We have many irate patients who are ringing us morning, noon and night,” Dr O’Donoghue told the Sunday Independent.
Up until last week, she was still telling patients she had no idea what was going to happen, which she viewed as “horrendous”.
“I had actually contacted a TD and he contacted us the following day advocating for a particular patient — the idea that TDs are ringing to advocate for a patient and you don’t even know yourself what’s going on,” she said.
“I’m in contact with GP colleagues all over the country, and I know of places who were supposed to get deliveries but that didn’t happen and places are getting less vaccines than expected.”
Dr O’Donoghue was prepared to vaccinate patients on Saturdays if necessary. She was conscious of being unable to give delivery dates to her staff, and it was “a big ask” for everyone to be available at the last minute, although she knew they would “rise to the challenge”.
She believed there were no deliveries on Saturdays, but a GP colleague in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, will be getting vaccines delivered on St Patrick’s Day.
Dr O’Donoghue was aware of medical practices lining up patients for vaccines that did not arrive.
“There’s added stress as I have made dozens of phone calls and sent dozens of emails and had no replies to some and no answers, and it’s taking up so much time. It’s been very, very difficult in the last few weeks,” she said.
“It’s been having to do things like this, but it has become desperation stakes. I’m just wrecked from it.”
In the Dáil last Thursday, Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty clashed with Tánaiste Leo Varadkar as he criticised the Government for failing to meet its vaccination targets.
Mr Doherty said the buddy system for GPs had caused serious concerns for some practices not provided with a single point of contact to coordinate the roll-out of vaccines to GPs. He criticised the failure to give adequate notice of deliveries and the fact several GPs had not received vaccines on the dates they were supposed to get them.
“That leaves GPs obliged to make hundreds of telephone calls to cancel vaccination appointments for their vulnerable elderly patients. This is simply unacceptable,” he said.
Mr Varadkar said vaccine delivery nationwide is “a big logistical operation and we need to be patient and supportive with the HSE”.
By this weekend, half-amillion vaccines will have been administered, he added.
Dr Denis McCauley, chair of the IMO’s GP committee, said his experience as a GP in Donegal vaccinating people aged over 85 was “one of the happiest and most satisfying experiences of my career”.
He added: “It is hard to describe the sense of relief, exhilaration and sheer joy that our patients have experienced when they get the jab.”
Nationwide, enormous progress was made and the experience of the vaccine programme has been “very positive”.
“There are still a small number of GP practices where there were unacceptable delays in getting vaccines to them,” Dr McCauley said. “We hope to have these cases sorted out early next week, along with making sure patients who are housebound receive their vaccines too.”
GPs who were not informed about deliveries had to plan or change plans at the last minute, which was “unfair and difficult”, particularly when dealing with elderly patients.
The challenges will increase, and it will be impossible for GPs to plan the roll-out properly “without clear, timely and accurate communication”.
‘Irate patients have been ringing morning, noon and night’