If doctors had been required in 1994 to warn people presenting babies for polio vaccination that all non-immunised contacts of that child should also be vaccinated, the vaccination system would have been unworkable, the High Court was told yesterday.
Dr Br∅d Hollywood said there was no such warning issued by doctors in Ireland to people bringing children for polio vaccination and she did not think there should have been. It would not have been possible to fulfil that warning and that was why it was not given.
By 1994, a large population here was not immunised against polio. Discussions about increasing the uptake were under way in 1994 and in 1995, the system was moved over to doctors.
Guidelines on vaccination issued by the Irish College of General Practitioners in 1993 contained no request that non-vaccinated contacts should be immunised at the same time as their children.
She said the warning given by Dr Fergus McKeagney, a Co Laois GP, was correct. He had told the court that in 1994, he gave a routine warning to parents, which included stating the vaccine was live and strict hygiene when changing and disposing of nappies was required.
Dr Hollywood, who operates a general practice in Ballymun and lectures in the Royal College of Surgeons and Trinity College Dublin, was giving evidence in the action by Mr Anthony Blanche (42), Ballybrittas, Co Laois, against the Midland Health Board and Dr McKeagney, with a practice at Main Street, Portarlington.
Mr Blanche has alleged negligence arising from his contracting polio following the vaccination of his daughter Isabel with the oral polio vaccine in 1994. The defendants have denied the claims.
At the outset of the case yesterday, Mr Jack Fitzgerald SC, for Dr McKeagney, described as "hollow" an expression of sympathy by Mr Michael Hanna SC, for the Midland Health Board for the doctor in relation to the position in which he had found himself. Mr Fitzgerald said the board had set up a vaccination system and had left the doctor in a position where it was claiming indemnity and contribution against him in relation to the legal proceedings.
Earlier yesterday, cross-examined by Mr Hanna, Dr McKeagney agreed he had come to a carefully considered view as to the nature of the warning which he would give to a parent bringing a child for vaccination. It was not part of his routine to warn that parents should also be vaccinated. He was not aware of any colleagues who gave such a warning in 1994.
If he had received a 1984 Department of Health circular, which advised that unvaccinated parents and siblings should be vaccinated at the same time as the babies, he would have contacted the Department to find out the nature of the change of policy.
In 1994, there was no formal system of retaining documents, including documents from the Midland Health Board, in his practice, he said. He agreed that no documents of any materiality to the case had been found in the practice. It would be incorrect to take the view that health board documents were not retained in the practice.
The case resumes on December 18th before Mr Justice O'Neill.
