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)

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)

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: 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)

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: Is it hard to get flu vaccine? Is availability of flu vaccine a difficulty that the HSE faces?

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)

Michael McNamara: Mr. McCallion seemed to indicate that there was. Could he elaborate a little? Is it difficult to get flu vaccine in unusually high quantities? I accept that 75% of the population would be three to four times the quantity the HSE would normally buy. Is flu vaccine typically unavailable in that quantity or is there a difficulty in sourcing it?

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: 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)

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)

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...

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)

Róisín Shortall: I share the Chair's frustration at not being able to get straight answers because earlier I had asked for an assurance that we were able to secure sufficient quantities of the flu vaccine and it is only in the past 15 minutes that Mr. McCallion has spoken of constraints in the market. Will he explain to us exactly what are those constraints? Is it a question of availability or of cost? I...

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)

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)

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)

Mr. Damien McCallion: Yes, there are challenges every year with flu vaccines. Obviously, every country in the world is looking for it at the same time, and those challenges are exacerbated this year with regard to Covid-19.

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?