'Swine flu jab scheme could take 8 months'

[Posted: Thu 05/11/2009]

Health Minister Mary Harney has claimed it could take between six and eight months to vaccinate the entire population against swine flu.

The Minister told the Dail that a typical HSE vaccination clinic would have the capacity to vaccinate up to 500 people daily, but the numbers vaccinated at the clinics will clearly depend on the demand from the public for the service.

She said staff been assigned to the clinics will not be replaced and the programme would mean that some other services might be delayed or curtailed.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael health spokesman Dr James Reilly said the Minister, during Dail question time yesterday, admitted that her Department had not decided to involve GPs innthe delivery of the swine flu vaccine until August-September.

Dr Reilly claimed the vaccination programme has been undermined by the late contact between the HSE and GPs.

He said there had been a number of problems to date with the vaccine programme, which was "unnecessarily chaotic."

Dr Reilly claimed hundreds of at-risk patients have had to be turned away because supplies have run out or were not delivered.

"One-third of the HSE vaccine clinics remain unopened and some at-risk patients face up to a 250 kilometre round trip to their nearest HSE clinic," he said

Dr Reilly also claimed there were problems with vaccine supplies for GP surgeries.

View the HSE's information source on swine flu here