Dr. Colm Henry:

I will take some of the questions and others can respond to those that are left out. On hospital admissions and cases where people cannot give information, this is a common problem in relation to Covid and other illnesses. In relation to background and medication, anyone who works in hospital will know the challenges of people sometimes coming in with sparse information. Usually, we rely on information from a GP referral letter, from direct contact with the GP on people coming into hospital, their background, their medications and their vaccination history, if it is relevant. In this case, a great enabler will be the universal health identifier, which is used for e-referrals and school vaccination programmes. Its application here will facilitate access to vaccination histories for hospital-based doctors for people being committed to hospitals who are not capable for whatever reason of conveying the information themselves.

On older people in rural areas, the Deputy will know this is a common problem across the healthcare service in terms of providing advice, ensuring access to healthcare and so on. We faced this issue with the influenza and other vaccination programmes among older people. The menu of actions we have includes publicity, communications and advertising but also using clinical networks. The hub of such networks is and always will be primary care. There is a unique relationship between a general practitioner and the people under his or her care, whether they are on the General Medical Services, GMS, list or otherwise. That will be a huge enabler for us in reaching the more inaccessible groups, including older people in rural areas.