AT LEAST 1,000 staff will have to be redeployed within the Health Service Executive (HSE) to administer a mass swine flu vaccination programme later this year, it was confirmed yesterday.
The HSE’s national director of population health Dr Pat Doorley told a press briefing at Government Buildings that the vaccines were expected to be licensed in late September to mid-October.
While healthcare workers and at-risk groups would be offered the H1N1 pandemic vaccine first, all children would then be offered the vaccine in schools, and the general public would be offered it at about 60 special vaccination clinics which would be set up.
At present, the HSE is looking at computer systems and other equipment for these vaccination clinics as well as drawing up operating procedures they should follow, he said.
About 30,000 doses of the swine flu vaccine have already arrived in the State but the HSE expects it will be at least mid- October before it will be able to begin the vaccination programme.
It is expected the 7.7 million doses of vaccine which have been ordered will be administered by doctors and nurses.
Dr Doorley said while the vaccination will be free, there had been no decision yet on whether people would have to pay to have it administered.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health has confirmed that the rate of influenza-like illness in the community in the week to last Sunday was 33.7 per 100,000 people, a slight drop from 35.7 per 100,000 the previous week.
The latest rates would be the equivalent of around 1,500 cases of infection a week.
Dr John Devlin, deputy chief medical officer at the Department of Health, confirmed seven people were hospitalised with swine flu in the week to last Sunday, bringing the total numbers hospitalised since the pandemic began to 82. Of these, 20 patients remain in hospital and four remain in intensive care.
He also stressed it was very important for those in at-risk groups, such as those over 65 years and those with chronic conditions, to also get the seasonal flu vaccine.
Meanwhile, Dr Doorley said there had been a “very small number of incidents” over swine flu in schools since they reopened this week.
The HSE is due to publish further information today on pregnant women and swine flu, who, Dr Doorley said, have a four-fold increased risk of being admitted to hospital if they get the virus.