Louise Walsh
The race is on to refurbish two medical marquees hit by vandals where up to 600 'at risk' people a day are due to be vaccinated this weekend.
The vandalism on the tents, especially erected for vaccinations in the carparks of the Bedford Medical Centre in Navan, Co Meath has been described as 'an attack on the most vulnerable of society.'
Heaters, couch beds and other items were broken in the incident on Monday evening and gardai are currently trawling through CCTV footage.
“The large practice, which has ten doctors, seven nurses and 30 staff erected the marquees in March to roll out the vaccines at weekends to patients.
“Nothing was stolen, but there was quite a bit of vandalism,” explained practice manager Ann Mulligan.
“The tents were kitted out with heaters especially for the elderly and these were broken, as were some of the couch beds we use for people who may get a reaction to the vaccine.
“We erected three marquees across our carparks here and two of them were hit.
“Everything else was toppled over or torn and just messed up. We now have to make sure that they are all kitted out again and fully functional before Friday when we are due to vaccinate the at risk groups again. We are lucky, I suppose, that we have a few days to get it sorted.
“We are confident that gardai will catch the perpetrators of this. It's not an attack on the medical centre, it's an attack on the vulnerable community. This could've delayed their jabs.”
“We vaccinate between 400-600 people here per day on vaccination weekends which start from Friday and carry on into Monday. It was very disappointing to arrive at work and find this, but we are going to make sure it is not going to stop any vaccinations this weekend,” she added.
Image: Ann Mulligan examining the damage done to the waiting room at Bedford Medical Centre Picture: Seamus Farrelly.
