Beacon Hospital CEO Michael Cullen has apologised after leftover vaccines were administered to teachers at the private school his children attend.
The Beacon Hospital has said the decision to give 20 “left-over” AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines to teachers and staff from the private St Gerard’s Catholic School in Bray in Wicklow was made “under time pressure”.
The hospital issued an apology after The Irish Daily Mail reported the story on Friday, highlighting that the children of Beacon CEO Michael Cullen attend the fee-paying school.
The Beacon’s statement read: “Beacon Hospital’s Vaccination Centre is supporting the delivery of the Covid-19 vaccination programme to HSE frontline workers.
“On Tuesday, a total of 1,096 HSE staff were vaccinated at the Centre. The Vaccination Centre is being run by Beacon Hospital at no cost to the HSE.
“On Tuesday, there were over 200 HSE no-shows to scheduled vaccine appointments as a result of people being double booked at the Aviva.
“Beacon Hospital immediately liaised with the HSE, and the majority of these excess vaccines were subsequently used for HSE staff who were redirected to Beacon Hospital throughout the afternoon.
“However, late on Tuesday evening there were still 20 left-over vaccines drawn up that needed to be used within a very short period of time.”
It added: “As this was the AstraZeneca vaccine, there were limitations to who this could be administered to.
“In keeping with the zero-wastage policy, a decision was made to administer the left-over vaccine to teachers who were in a position to get to the Centre within the exceptionally short timeframe required.”
Cullen, meanwhile, has apologised for any upset the decision caused and said plans are being drawn up so this does not happen again.
He said: “I recognise that the decision that was made was not in line with the sequencing guidelines in place from the HSE, however, it was made under time pressure and with a view to ensuring that the vaccine did not go to waste.
“I sincerely apologise for the upset that this decision has caused and we are updating our approach to our back up list to ensure that this situation does not arise again.”
HSE CEO Paul Reid said incidents like this are “extremely annoying and frustrating.”
He told RTE’s Morning Ireland: “There are very clear guidelines, re-communicated out… on a regular basis.
“There can be no ambiguity around how you arrange vaccination clinics, how back up lists should be organised in advance.
“We really do expect all services to comply with this.”
He added: “We understand totally… there’s a period of time of a few hours where the seal is broken that it must be utilised.
“But it should be planned in terms… [of] knowing that you have a back up list which would be in line with our sequencing protocols”.
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