Results 1-20 of 27 for flu segment:7704777

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Non-Covid Healthcare Disruption: Waiting Lists and Screening (Resumed) (17 Jul 2020)

Paul McAuliffe: I refer to the discussions we had this morning with the Irish Cancer Society and the IMO, particularly the discussion about a national flu vaccination programme. Can the witnesses flesh out some of the plans for that? Is that being done in parallel with the fight against Covid-19, particularly, the roll-out to non-prioritised groups?

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Non-Covid Healthcare Disruption: Waiting Lists and Screening (Resumed) (17 Jul 2020)

Ms Siobhán McArdle: From a HSE perspective the flu programme forms part of the public health response and is very much part of our winter plan every year. Plans are in development to extend it with particular attention to ensuring there is high uptake in our staff cohort across both community and acute services. We will also extend the programme to higher-risk groups such as people with...

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Non-Covid Healthcare Disruption: Waiting Lists and Screening (Resumed) (17 Jul 2020)

Paul McAuliffe: Is there a reason the HSE is not approaching the flu vaccination programme with the whole population as the target?

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Non-Covid Healthcare Disruption: Waiting Lists and Screening (Resumed) (17 Jul 2020)

...the operational part of the HSE but our clinical colleagues are best placed to advise on that. At the moment, the priority is, as I said, the age cohorts that are more vulnerable to the effects of flu and respiratory disease. Also included are people with chronic disease and people with respiratory illnesses such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD. We are very much...

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Non-Covid Healthcare Disruption: Waiting Lists and Screening (Resumed) (17 Jul 2020)

Paul McAuliffe: Is the HSE aiming to have the maximum possible roll-out of the flu vaccine to as many people in the population as we possibly can, or are we limiting that ambition to the target groups, just as we might ordinarily do in a normal year?

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Non-Covid Healthcare Disruption: Waiting Lists and Screening (Resumed) (17 Jul 2020)

...n McArdle: It has certainly expanded in the current year. Over the past winter we identified that expanding it this winter would be an advantage in managing in the context of Covid. As such the flu vaccine has been extended to a wider cohort. It is a question we will take back to our colleagues and maybe give the Deputy further information on the extent of the flu vaccine programme for...

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Non-Covid Healthcare Disruption: Waiting Lists and Screening (Resumed) (17 Jul 2020)

Paul McAuliffe: From some of the clinical advice this morning there is talk that the flu season may reach us in September or thereafter. We have very little time to prepare for that. From both a social and an economic perspective, and speaking as a public representative, there is a benefit to reducing all levels of influenza that we can in order to avoid it being mistaken for Covid-19. Even the slightest...

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Non-Covid Healthcare Disruption: Waiting Lists and Screening (Resumed) (17 Jul 2020)

Ms Siobhán McArdle: We have a flu plan in place and will be encouraging people when that plan is launched to ensure that we have maximum take up of it. We will provide the Deputy on the flu plan outside of this.

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Non-Covid Healthcare Disruption: Waiting Lists and Screening (Resumed) (17 Jul 2020)

Paul McAuliffe: When the HSE is coming back to me on that it might also look at the issue of pharmacists. I understand flu vaccination can be availed of in the local pharmacy, but that pharmacist is not able to administer the vaccine in a person's home, for example. That is additional capacity that could provide the greater than normal ability to deliver the flu vaccine and I urge the HSE to consider that....

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Non-Covid Healthcare Disruption: Waiting Lists and Screening (Resumed) (17 Jul 2020)

...delivery that begin to interconnect as we move on. It is fair to say that we face a real capacity challenge, and depending on the trend in Covid-19 data and what happens with this year's flu cycle as winter approaches, we face a capacity constraint. We have a fixed capacity against an as yet unknown demand.

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Non-Covid Healthcare Disruption: Waiting Lists and Screening (Resumed) (17 Jul 2020)

Róisín Shortall: I thank the Chairman. I welcome all our guests. I want to concentrate my questions on the issue of the flu vaccine. Earlier in our session here, and we are all only too well aware of it, there was discussion about the fact that, pre-Covid, we had a very severe shortage of hospital beds. I think we are all aware of that from the capacity review. That situation has been exacerbated greatly...

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Non-Covid Healthcare Disruption: Waiting Lists and Screening (Resumed) (17 Jul 2020)

...specifically, it is very much about having the vaccine and engaging in peer-to-peer vaccination within the sites. At public health level, we have an ongoing engagement with hospitals on flu vaccine uptake, and our public health leads are engaged in that. On the Deputy's specific questions, I will have to refer back to her. I do not have the date for the start of the campaign as it is...

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Non-Covid Healthcare Disruption: Waiting Lists and Screening (Resumed) (17 Jul 2020)

Ms Siobhán McArdle: The planning for the flu vaccine programme has commenced. That is under the governance of our chief clinical officer. Our colleagues in health and well-being are very much involved in rolling it out on two fronts. One is for the target populations. We work very closely with our GP colleagues. For example, over the past winter there was a focus on ensuring that...

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Non-Covid Healthcare Disruption: Waiting Lists and Screening (Resumed) (17 Jul 2020)

Ms Siobhán McArdle: The flu vaccine programme-----

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Non-Covid Healthcare Disruption: Waiting Lists and Screening (Resumed) (17 Jul 2020)

Róisín Shortall: I am not talking about uptake. Obviously, there is a need for greater uptake. My question is whether or not the health system will be ready for the flu season, given the huge challenges that are there as a result of Covid.

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Non-Covid Healthcare Disruption: Waiting Lists and Screening (Resumed) (17 Jul 2020)

Róisín Shortall: It does seem quite a small additional number. My concern is that we will not be prepared for the flu season on top of the other constraints that are there.

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Non-Covid Healthcare Disruption: Waiting Lists and Screening (Resumed) (17 Jul 2020)

Michael McNamara: I have never taken a flu vaccine before but we live in extraordinary times. Can I take it that there are no plans to introduce a vaccination programme for ordinary people who are not healthcare workers, do not have an underlying condition, are not normally recommended to take the flu vaccine and are not children?

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Non-Covid Healthcare Disruption: Waiting Lists and Screening (Resumed) (17 Jul 2020)

Mr. Damien McCallion: That is so for the flu. The flu programme extends to the 1.4 million adults and 500,000 to 600,000 children that I mentioned earlier.

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Non-Covid Healthcare Disruption: Waiting Lists and Screening (Resumed) (17 Jul 2020)

Michael McNamara: ...meetings are exercises in information provision or obfuscation. I am sorry to say that but it is sometimes difficult to get answers to simple questions. We have been told repeatedly that once the flu season kicks off, whether it will be in September or December this year, there is potential for catastrophe in our hospitals. Would you accept that?

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Non-Covid Healthcare Disruption: Waiting Lists and Screening (Resumed) (17 Jul 2020)

Mr. Liam Woods: If we do not have data we are very happy to provide it to you. Second, on the pressure that will come on the acute system, which may be partly influenced by flu and vaccine, there is a requirement for the committee, and I hear it from a number of members, to have a detailed public health briefing on the vaccination programme, its priorities and where we are going with that...