Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will comment on several issues relating to the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out. In Clare, over the course of the last few months, I have been inundated with emails from constituents who were not given appointments in due course as per the stated timeline of cohorts, despite the fact they had underlying conditions and, as such, were told they would be prioritised. I am talking about our extremely vulnerable people who believed they would be prioritised.

I will raise one specific example. I have been in regular contact with a constituent whose wife is housebound and suffers from multiple sclerosis, MS, and, therefore, has extremely limited mobility. This individual has a care team that have all been vaccinated but there was no contact, unfortunately, from her GP about her vaccination date even though she reached out on multiple occasions. Eventually, the independent care team rather than HSE workers orchestrated her receiving the vaccine. Her husband, unfortunately, had to drive her to a test centre more than an hour away, where a nurse agreed to come out to the vehicle and vaccinate herin situ. In response to a representation from my office to the HSE, I was told that generally people in cohort 4 were being vaccinated in hospital settings, which is an erroneous remark as housebound people are entitled to access vaccination through GPs and-or their consultants.

This is all the more striking when we consider the circumstances of another individual in the same locality, with the same risk and in the same cohort, but for whom the National Ambulance Service managed to arrange vaccination at home six weeks earlier. This discrepancy in the time elapsed is a serious concern and I wanted to raise it with the Minister today. Time and again this constituent reached out to the HSE helpline, specially formed to deal with queries from the public, but there did not seem to be any sort of effective communication between staff answering the freephone line, who are tasked with redirecting and resolving queries, staff in HSE headquarters or staff working remotely for GP offices across the country. The lines of communication were extremely, and frustratingly, convoluted.

We welcomed the announcement that vaccinations would be administered through pharmacies. That seemed a proactive response to address a lack of access to centralised vaccination centres but, to date, in Clare, only one pharmacy has been given the capacity to administer vaccines and, ironically, it is in Ennis where there is a vaccination centre. Clare is a huge county and I ask that this matter, in particular, be addressed. Access is so important. We do not want to make it difficult for people to access their vaccination. It was initially conceived of, and presented as, something that would benefit people in more isolated areas but that does not seem to be the case. Many pharmacists in Clare were excited at the prospect of being able to offer this opportunity and essential service to their local populations in more rural parts. Again, I ask that this matter is addressed.

Another issue raised with my office is the seeming postcode lottery determining where constituents are allocated a vaccination appointment. People living in the same locality, for example, have been sent to different vaccination centres, which has caused huge frustration and confusion. This may be a less pressing issue than the ones I have outlined. However, I mention the frustration and difficulties this has caused people in trying to arrange transport in order to make an appointment that is more than an hour's journey away. These are seen as minor administrative errors that should, and could, have been foreseen and avoided.

I will raise a further issue, which is the access to vaccination appointments for homeless people. I understand rough sleepers are finding it impossible to access vaccinations as they may not necessarily be linked in with homeless charities. If they are not linked in with charities through accommodation services, will they be able to receive vaccines another way? Some of these people are the most marginalised in our society, already dealing with the everyday stress of not having accommodation and, therefore, Government should ensure they are reached and enabled to get their vaccines.

I will mention the mass confusion regarding the initial extended interval between first and second doses of AstraZeneca for the cohort aged 60 to 69, much to their dismay, as they see younger, stronger people only waiting four weeks between their first and second vaccine. The projected figures for incoming AstraZeneca vaccines mean that interval has now, finally, been reduced to four weeks, but not without serious and legitimate anxiety from a section of our population that has already struggled enough and does not deserve unnecessary ambiguity and lack of clarity. I wish I could say that a line has been drawn in the sand and these issues have been resolved, but I foresee we are not out of the woods yet, unfortunately.

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