HEALTH MINISTER STEPHEN Donnelly has said the “large majority of 85s and overs” will have received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine by Sunday.

Some who are housebound will have not received their vaccine yet, he said.

Donnelly also said that Ireland has pre-ordered 18.5 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, meaning that if a ‘booster’ shot is needed next winter, then it can be given as long as it is still effective against Covid-19 variants circulating at that time.

Speaking to an Oireachtas Health Committee, Donnelly said that Ireland has increased its work on genome sequencing of the SARS-CoV-2 virus: it’s increased from sequencing 1% of positive tests to 15% of positive tests, which is important in tracking the emergence of any new variants.

On the issue of the increase in waiting lists and ‘missed’ care due to Covid-19 and the associated restrictions, Donnelly said that “the challenge we face is very significant”.

He said that there will be an increase in critical care beds, new rehab and community beds, and the staffing increase that those extra beds require to deal with that “tsunami” of care required.

’520,000 vaccine doses received this week’

SocDems TD Roisin Shortall said that there appears to be a gap between the vaccines delivered and the vaccines administered, and Shortall asked that the State give figures on the number of vaccines being delivered in Ireland each week.

Donnelly replied: “Right now we have received 520,000 vaccine doses, by the end of the week, the forecast is that we will have administered 500,000.”

On the issue of whether Vitamin D can help give some protection against the ill effects of Covid-19, Donnelly said that NPHET was “very positive” about the effects of Vitamin D, but he recalls that there may not have been sufficient evidence specifically linked to Covid-19. 

Sharing the vaccine with poorer countries

In response to a question from People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny about the equitable sharing of vaccines, Donnelly said that “there was no doubt about it” that “richer countries are buying up the stock”. 

He said that at a meeting of EU health ministers yesterday, he requested that Europe would be “the leader” in terms of the equitable sharing of vaccines around the world.

Donnelly said that as well as there being a moral obligation to ensure poorer countries get access to the vaccine, he added: “There’s no point in vaccinating ourselves if large parts of the world aren’t vaccinated.”

Student nurses and pay

On the issue of student nurses’ pay, both during the pandemic and independent of it, Donnelly said that he wanted the recommendations of the Tom Collins’ report to be implemented in time for the next academic year.

The report recommended a non-taxable payment of €100 a week for student nurses to intern at hospitals during the pandemic, which has been backdated to the rest of the academic year. A separate report will look at nurses’ pay separate to the pandemic.

Unions representing student nurses said they were disinclined to accept those recommendations, and Donnelly told the committee that those discussions are ongoing.

Oireachtas Health Committee Oireachtas Health Committee

When asked by Sinn Féin health spokesperson David Cullinane about whether the Government could ‘revert’ to the contract offered to student nurses last March, Donnelly said that the two situations were different.

Donnelly said that clinical placements that student nurses were due to take part in were paused, and some student nurses were hired as healthcare assistants during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in Ireland.

Donnelly said that the requirement for clinical placements as part of their training couldn’t be replaced with their work as healthcare assistants, and those placements still need to take place.

The National Children’s Hospital

Fianna Fáil TD John Lahart asked about the National Children’s Hospital. 

Donnelly said that the Development Board resisted a lot of claims from the contractor, and that things were made more complicated because of the Covid-19 pandemic: “I certainly was not satisfied with the speed at which it got back up again.”

“There is an independent mechanism in place to go with these claims, but we shouldn’t rule out the [mediation] that you suggested.”

Recruitment and retention

Fine Gael TD Colm Burke said that his understanding was that there was a risk that people would leave the healthcare service due to the strains they’ve been under during the pandemic. 

In response, Donnelly said: “Staff in the HSE are exhausted, before Covid arrived they were run off their feet, they’ve been asked to step up again and again. I think we can all agree that simply thanking people is not enough.

“Are people close to burnout? If what you say is true, if they’re thinking of retiring, then that’s something we need to look at very very seriously. The good news is that the pressure has eased.”

He said that a systematic survey – “essentially exit interviews” – of healthcare workers who are leaving the Irish healthcare system to other industries or abroad “would be very useful” to help strengthen retention.