Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 11 November 2020

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

HSE Winter Plan: HSE

Photo of Annie HoeyAnnie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses and express my gratitude to all healthcare workers and everyone who has been getting us through this crisis. It has not been an easy job. I will focus on two areas. I know a few questions have been asked about the flu vaccine but I will swing back to it if that is all right. There was a lot of coverage today and I am sure everyone's notifications were going off with news notifications. Obviously, the HSE has refuted the claims that supplies have gone missing but there is coverage around holding back doses until it is assessed where they are needed. I am a bit curious about the process by which this will be decided. It is my understanding that the HSE takes its lead on this issue based on information supplied by GPs. This is inputted from GP surgeries and that is how the HSE will be informed in this regard. This is put in in hard copy. I have heard from a number of GPs who have raised concerns around this process. It requires many hours of administration because there is no swift online system to do this. As has been noted, many GPs do not do the paperwork patient by patient as it is very time consuming. I know one GP who has had to hire extra staff simply to help with the administration associated with rolling out the flu vaccine this year, which I think we can agree is probably a slightly crazy use of resources when we are so tied for resources. Can the witnesses explain why in 2020 we still require GPs to do this in this way and why a swift online system of registering those who have received the flu vaccine is not yet in place? When I reflect on the GP who had to take on an extra person, I see that this form was handled four times - administration to the GP, back to the patient and back to administration to submit for payment. This seems wrong both from infection control and financial perspectives. If the information from GPs is going to be used to determine where the next round of flu vaccines will be sent, and right now, perhaps GPs have yet to even send their information to the HSE and might be doing it in bulk, using this administration system to decide where to send the last round of doses might not be a good statistics exercise.

Could the witnesses comment on concerns that private patients are getting the flu vaccine? Regardless of whether someone is a private or public patient, if one is vulnerable, one is vulnerable. What is the HSE doing to mitigate against this? Is there a contingency plan for buy more quantities of the flu vaccine if areas have been under-supplied due to this onerous system of registering the flu vaccine? I will ask my second question after that.

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