HSE OFFICE WORKERS ‘SKIP QUEUE FOR VACCINE’
Anger as management clears jabs for clerical staff
DOZENS of office workers from one north Dublin HSE office were vaccinated in the past fortnight in a move described yesterday as ‘queue skipping’ by representatives of higher priority healthcare workers.
The vaccinations of the largely clerical and non-Covid-facing HSE staff at Community Healthcare Organisation Dublin North City and County offices were organised by HSE managers and the workers were processed through the HSE’s vaccine portal, the Irish Mail on Sunday can confirm.
Crucially, the workers attended appointments that were organised by email and by text message, the MoS understands.
And when the MoS contacted the health authority on Friday, February 26 and asked about appointments made for these administration employees, the HSE initially denied it had happened – pointing us instead to another incident where some surplus vaccines were given to
VACCINES
Priority 4 staff, as non-frontline or frontline-supporting HSE workers were designated at the time.
A whistleblowing source contacted the MoS 10 days ago to say that non-frontline members of staff at Community Healthcare Organisation Dublin North City and County (CHO DNCC) Swords had been given appointments to attend vaccinations at the Mater Hospital on February 19.
While the MoS attempted to clarify this, the HSE insisted that we had inaccurate details and said what we were referring to was an incident at a community vaccination clinic on February 12 – where some surplus vaccine had been given to non-frontline staff after a reserve list had been first activated.
This week, the MoS went back to the HSE with fresh details, including the names of individual nonfrontline or frontline-supporting staff members who received their vaccinations on February 19 (as originally asked about); February 26, (the date we submitted in our initial inquiry); and on further dates this week.
These details led the health authority to admit that scarce supplies of the vaccine were given to clerical staff – but that they were acting ‘to enable the sequencing of staff in keeping with the zero wastage policy of the vaccine’.
Under the HSE’s guidelines, the vaccine should only be given to clerical and administration workers after the following cohorts; nurses and medics working with Covid patients, first responders, GPs, dentists, dental nurses, counsellors, mental health workers, public health workers, social care workers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, lab staff, pharmacists, catering and household staff, maintenance workers, and inspectors such as those working with the Health Information and Quality Authority. The HSE has refused to answer any questions about whether the clerical staff in north Dublin only received the vaccine after all other healthcare workers prioritised ahead of them were given the jab first and they have also refused to reveal when it was decided that they be given the vaccine on February 19 and 26, and again this week.
The vaccinations this week were organised by text message and took place at Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown.
In all, it is understood that between 50 and 60 non-frontline or directly frontline-supporting staff from CHO DNCC were vaccinated in the past fortnight across several dates.
Last night, the CEO of Home Community Care Ireland, Joseph Musgrave, revealed that while HSE clerical staff based in north Dublin were receiving the Covid jab, 80% of his group’s frontline workers had yet to receive the vaccine. Under the HSE’s own vaccination sequencing protocols, homecare workers are designated priority 2 – and should be given the vaccine before workers who were then priority 4, and have subsequently been moved further down the list as the state moves to prioritise those with underlying conditions. Mr Musgrave, whose organisation represents companies that provide managed home care services, told the MoS last night: ‘There is a week-long lag in the numbers we get about our frontline workers getting the vaccine. Our members employ 10,000 frontline workers including nurses and nursing care assistants and they provide care to vulnerable people in their homes.
‘Up to February 21, we only had 1,800 out of our 10,000 staff vaccinated so that means 18% of our frontline workers were vaccinated when these people on the reserve list were called up.
‘That means 80% of our staff were not vaccinated at that time…. You would think some of our staff would have been around at short notice to get the vaccine if the reserve list was working.
‘By the week ending February 28, 3,500 of our frontline staff were vaccinated, which is a third of our staff and I would think by the end of the week that has just gone by, about half our workers would have been vaccinated. So not all of our staff by a long shot have been vaccinated.
‘This is not the first instance we have heard of people skipping the queue. This does not inspire much confidence in the vaccine programme and it raises questions about how they are operating the reserve lists.’
He added: ‘If this is about perishability, the question is are there enough robust procedures for the reserve list?’
These revelations come as the HSE’s Covid vaccine rollout continues to be mired in controversy.
This week, it emerged that the health authority had failed to meet its 100,000 a week vaccine target and increasingly frustrated GPs around the country revealed they were not able to give elderly patients the vaccine because deliveries had yet to be arranged or else they were being cancelled at short notice.
Medics also claimed doses of the vaccine were arriving without the syringes needed to give the jab and that when they tried to raise these issues with the HSE, they were directed to a poorly staffed call centre.
In a written statement issued this weekend, the HSE stated: ‘We want to clearly state that the information we gave you on Friday the 26th of February was given in good faith and understood we were answering the query you asked.
‘In February 2021, all managers in Community Healthcare Organisation Dublin City and County compiled lists of healthcare workers in their service who had not yet received their vaccine
‘Not the first instance of people skipping queue’
in line with the HSE Guidelines for Sequencing.
‘Your assertion is correct, members of staff were contacted to enable the sequencing of staff in keeping with the zero wastage policy of the vaccine and including all other healthcare workers, not in direct patient/service user contact, but who provide essential health services and other non-patient/ service user-facing personnel.
‘CHO DNCC are working in close partnership with our hospital colleagues to ensure the maximum number of healthcare workers receive the first dose of their vaccine and are pleased to report that over the past number of weeks as part of this, a significant number have received the first dose of their vaccine, AstraZeneca, which
‘Every effort is made to adhere to sequencing’
is not currently provided to those aged 70 and over.
‘The vast majority of healthcare workers across CHO DNCC, includ
ing voluntary and statutory agencies, who have already received a Covid-19 vaccine are in regular frontline patient contact roles, and every effort is made to adhere to sequencing. There are around 10,000 healthcare workers working in voluntary and statutory agencies across CHO DNCC, which does not include those working in residential care or private care settings.
‘The re-prioritisation list, announced on February 23, 2021 will see those with “at-risk medical conditions” starting vaccination from the week of March 8, 2021. These vaccinations will be in parallel with other priority groups including all other healthcare workers and those providing services essential to vaccination programmes.
‘All staff who work in CHO DNCC are essential healthcare workers who continue to ensure health and social care services are provided to our community, in addition to the ongoing management of Covid-19 and related services, including Covid19 testing, community assessment and the community vaccination programme.’
More healthcare workers are being given the Astra-Zeneca vaccine because the Government decided not to give the vaccine to people over 70 years old.
Crucially, it is much easier to distribute, unlike the Covid vaccine manufactured by Pfizer which must be kept at -80C until it is about to be used. The jab, developed by Swedish firm AstraZeneca and England’s Oxford University, can be stored in a normal fridge – and has a much longer shelf-life leading to less risk of wastage.