Top off icial slams HSE f lu strategy as ‘lacking’

THE country’s chief medical officer told Health Minister Simon Harris he was not convinced the health service was doing all it could to prepare for an outbreak of flu.

In a highly critical email, Tony Holohan made a series of stinging criticisms of the HSE.

He said there had been ‘slow or lacking’ service responses in individual hospitals and particularly in nursing homes and social care settings where flu could spread quickly.

Mr Holohan said the department had been forced to

step in last January as the HSE struggled to cope with an outbreak of flu – and that this should not have happened. He said there was no way he could say he was happy ‘that all has or will’ be done to respond to whatever ‘this year’s flu season may bring’.

He also criticised nurses, saying there was an ‘ambivalence’ about the need for health staff to get the flu vaccine. The chief medical officer added that vaccination rates are ‘far too low to be acceptable’ and that this was not only spreading flu but keeping staff out of work when they were most needed.

The email was sent in September after Mr Harris raised concerns over British media reports warning of the worst-ever outbreak of the flu.

These documents were released in response to a Freedom of Information request in the week in which overcrowding in Irish hospitals hit record highs.

Mr Harris had asked for an update four months ago on what was being done based on the UK’s flu predictions.

The minister wrote: ‘I am extraordinarily eager that efforts are even greater this year… and wish to be advised on any and all measures we are taking and others which could be considered if we wish to see a marked improvement in our preparedness.’

In his response, Mr Holohan said that while plans were in place, the problem had been putting them into practice.

‘Our experience has been weaknesses in the execution of the plans rather than per se with the plans themselves,’ he said.

He added that some people within the HSE did not seem to think the flu preparation plans were of relevance to them.

This, he wrote, is ‘leading to slow or lacking service responses to the plan at the level of individual hospitals and nursing homes/social care settings’.

Mr Holohan explained how the department was forced to step in during January 2017 because of its ‘assessment of a slow response by the HSE to the upswing in influenza’.

‘In a standard winter and in the absence of a major epidemic, direct operational intervention by the department should not be necessary.’

Mr Holohan criticised vaccination rates among people working in hospitals, nursing homes and other areas where flu can easily spread: ‘I am concerned about the poor uptake of vaccine in patient-facing staff roles in these settings.’

He urged the minister and senior health care staff to back the campaign to increase vaccination rates.

In a statement, the department said the comments were made in the context of ‘lessons learned from the flu preparedness’ from January of last year. It said it was in close contact with the HSE and measures had been introduced to deal with the crisis.

The HSE said in its response: ‘Any issues expressed by the department as part of the planning process around flu preparedness were addressed and the plans, as subsequently agreed and approved, are being implemented.’