Residents in care homes which were left out of the initial round of Covid-19 vaccinations are to begin receiving their inoculations next week.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) said it had reviewed the situation and residents in “unregistered congregated settings for older persons over 65 years... will now be included in the priority centres for vaccination.”

These facilities were not included in the initial round of Covid-19 vaccinations which prioritised over-65s in nurse-led, 24-hour care units.

Hospital Report

This also affected an unknown number of residents in religious homes and other centres not registered to the Health Information Quality Authority.

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The change follows a campaign by relatives of residents in Saint Columbcille Village care home in Clonmany, Co Donegal, who spoke of their fears their loved ones had been "forgotten" and might die while waiting to receive the coronavirus vaccine.

The home was not included in the HSE’s priority list because it was run by carers without medical training rather than nurse-led care.

This was even though no such distinction was made in the Government’s list of provisional vaccine allocation groups, which gives first priority to “people aged 65 and over who are residents of long-term care facilities.”

Sense of relief

Cathal Doherty, whose 84-year-old father John is among 12 residents in the high-support unit at Saint Columbcille Village, said he felt a "great sense of relief" that his father was to receive the vaccine, though there was still "fear we might have been too late. I'll be counting down the days over the next few weeks until the vaccine takes full effect, and hopefully we can get him to a safe level where he's fully protected."

Mr Doherty said he was “extremely grateful common sense has prevailed”, though he said the relatives should not have had to campaign to have their loved ones vaccinated and questioned how many others were in a similar position.

“There were a lot of homes left out, not just Clonmany,” he said. “The question now is, how many other care homes were missed?

“We feel we shouldn’t have had to campaign for this. It was public perception changed this, and I think it’s wrong that we need media and political intervention to have something like this solved,” he said. “It shouldn’t have had to take so long.”

He said he had not yet told his father the good news because he wanted to wait until the date of his injection next week was confirmed.

“Even on the phone yesterday to me he said, ‘any word on the vaccine?’ I’m so excited to tell him. He just wants to see us again, and with the vaccine, he’ll be able to.”

In a statement, the HSE said that now a safe and effective vaccine was available, it was "acutely aware that all those in vulnerable groups are very keen to get vaccinated as quickly as possible.

“Currently the key constraint is the limited supply of vaccine available so it is not possible to reach everyone as quickly as we would like,” but added that while it must adhere to Government policy in rolling out the vaccine, it was “doing everything that it can to reach everyone as quickly as possible.”