HSE urges people to get flu vaccine as hospitals 'clear out' patients

Vivienne Clarke

The chief clinical officer of the HSE, Dr Colm Henry, has repeated a call for people to avail of the flu vaccine, particularly those in vulnerable groups including older adults, those with underlying conditions and young children.

Speaking on RTE radio’s Morning Ireland, Dr Henry said that vaccination was very effective in preventing serious illness. He acknowledged that the figures of those who have been vaccinated are not as high as during the pandemic when people queued to get vaccinated, but 60 per cent of those aged over 70 had been vaccinated.

Dr Henry pointed out that every person who was vaccinated was one less person likely to be hospitalised, vaccination during the pandemic prevented up to 16,000 deaths, he said.

The flu vaccine is now available for all children aged 2 to 17.

Here's everything parents need to know:
➡️The flu is contagious and can cause serious illness in children
➡️The flu vaccine protects your child, and the rest of your family, from the flu
➡️The flu vaccine is a… pic.twitter.com/SwmISlbbKt

— HSE Ireland (@HSELive) December 4, 2023

When asked if there was vaccine fatigue, Dr Henry said that long before the pandemic there had been an annual flu vaccine and that continued, “for the great majority of time, people do listen to the message and understand the protection that vaccines give them and understand it gives great protection from serious illness. The message still is strong from us. That the vaccine affords great benefits and protection from serious illness. Anybody who's eligible to accept the vaccine, it's not too late.”

Dr Henry also cautioned parents of young babies to consider repeated exposure in congregated settings. He advised them to call ahead and ask if there was anybody with symptoms going to attend to ensure that the small baby was not exposed to somebody who may be symptomatic or indeed asymptomatic with the respiratory virus.

In response to a report that hospitals were “clearing out patients” in a bid to avoid New Year gridlock, Dr Henry said there was nothing new in this. People liked to get home for Christmas, he said.

“As long as I've been a doctor, going back many years now, people have wanted to go home for Christmas and medical teams, nursing teams right across hospitals and in all settings would try to complete investigations, complete course of treatment in order to get people home for Christmas.

“There's nothing extraordinary in that at all. What we're doing this year is we've learned we get more and more people presenting to emergency departments, as people get old and dependent.”

It was not unusual for elective procedures to be cancelled at this time of year, he said, to ease pressure on emergency departments. “But what we do ask them to do is recognise where is the greatest risk. And the greatest risk, of course, is protracted stays of people in emergency departments. And that risk needs to be shared between the hospital and the community so people can avail of GP out of hours, of local injuries units, of extended diagnostics facilities.

“We will ensure seven-over-seven rostering including senior decision makers, including diagnostics, so that we can avoid ission to accelerate the pathway of people through emergency departments and to accelerate the path for people out of hospitals to keep the flow going through hospitals.”