Childcare workers were vaccinated against Covid-19 at the private Beacon Hospital in Dublin earlier this month.
The Irish Times reports that the HSE’s Dublin Midlands Hospital Group (DMHG) said the workers were given the vaccines to avoid waste and because they “provide the essential service of childcare to frontline healthcare workers”.
Earlier on Friday, it emerged that the hospital vaccinated 20 staff and teachers from a private school in Co Dublin using leftover jabs this week.
A decision was taken as per the guidance... to vaccinate the childcare providers
Under the State’s rollout plan, teachers and childcare workers are in the eleventh priority group to receive the vaccine. The vaccine is currently being administered to group four.
However, the DMHG said that the vaccination of the childcare workers at the Beacon Hospital was in line with national guidance.
“All vaccination centres have been provided with the national guidance concerning sequencing of frontline healthcare workers and are expected to ensure that stand-by lists are in place to support all scheduled clinics,” a DMHG statement said.
“A decision was taken as per the guidance and in keeping with the zero wastage policy to vaccinate the childcare providers located in the Beacon Medical Campus who provide the essential service of childcare to frontline healthcare workers,” it added.
Broadened list
A spokesman for the Beacon Hospital also said that vaccines were administered to childcare providers located on the campus, citing the same reasons.
“We are currently amending our processes to broaden our stand-by list to ensure that if there are leftover vaccines on any occasion in the future that there are sufficient numbers of identified individuals in a position to reach the Centre within the tight timeframe required," the spokesman added.
The HSE, DMHG and the Beacon Hospital did not respond to a query from The Irish Times on how many childcare workers were vaccinated or which facility they worked in.
Earlier on Friday, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly rebuked the privately-owned hospital after it vaccinated 20 staff and teachers at a school using leftover jabs this week.
The south Dublin hospital has apologised for its decision, claiming it was made under “time pressure” and admitting the move was not in line with the HSE’s sequencing guidelines.
Minister Donnelly said on Friday that the guidelines are “crystal clear” and the transfer of vaccines should not have happened.
