Vivienne Clarke
HSE director general Paul Reid has said he cannot condone the vaccination of teachers from a private school at the Beacon hospital.
According to the Irish Daily Mail, the Dublin hospital gave "leftover vaccines" to 20 teachers and staff from St Gerard's Catholic School in Bray.
The paper reports children of the CEO of the Beacon attend the fee-paying school.
The private hospital is currently being used as a hub to vaccinate frontline healthcare workers. In a statement, the Beacon confirmed 20 leftover AstraZeneca vaccines were available on Tuesday evening due to some appointments being 'double booked.
“I cannot condone when something like this happens,” he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.
There were very clear guidelines on how vaccinations should be planned, what should happen when vials were opened and the back up list.
It was extremely annoying and frustrating “for myself and the HSE” when incidents like this happened, he added.
“From my perspective there can be no ambiguity about back up lists. We expect all to comply with this.”
On Newstalk Breakfast, Mr Reid said: “We do want them to have backup lists as we don’t want vials wasted. But we do expect all services to stick with our prioritisation and sequencing.
“The vial certainly has to be used if they’re open, we all get that. But even the preparation for the day does need prioritisation on who you might have on standby and there are plenty of options, legitimately, around what can be done next.”
Beacon confirmation
In its statement, Beacon said a majority of doses were given to HSE staff, but about 20 doses were given to teachers.
The hospital says this was down to limitations to whom the AstraZeneca jab could be administered to, as well as the "exceptionally" short time timeframe involved before the vaccine went to waste.
Beacon CEO Michael Cullen said: “I recognise that the decision that was made was not in line with the sequencing guidelines in place from the HSE however it was made under time pressure and with a view to ensuring that the vaccine did not go to waste. I sincerely apologise for the upset that this decision has caused and we are updating our approach to our back up list to ensure that this situation does not arise again.”
