Outpatient appointments at just 50% of normal levels due to cyberattack on HSE
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Outpatients appointments are running at just 50% of their normal levels due to the impact of the HSE data hack, health officials have confirmed.
The HSE's chief operations officer, Anne O'Connor, said up to 14,000 people would typically attend outpatient appointments daily, but at present they can only treat about half that number.
She also confirmed that just 14,000 of the 80,000 staff devices have so far been cleaned of the virus and while 28 of the country's hospital laboratories now have limited services, a further 16 are still out.
He said “100m will be a smaller figure in terms of the cost of this", adding that it is too early to estimate how many patients have been affected.
“There is still an extremely high risk of patient data emerging somewhere.”
Meanwhile, people under-50 who have received one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine may be offered an mRNA vaccine ie Pfizer or Moderna for their second dose.
The National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) said they are now considering this because of increased reports from England of potential links between TTS blood clotting (Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome) and the AstraZeneca vaccine.
In a letter to chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan on May 24, Niac also said consideration is being given to vaccines for children. The Pfizer vaccine is now approved for children in America, and the European Medicines Agency is expected to do the same next month.
NIAC is reviewing the “incidence and severity” of the virus among children.
Meanwhile, the number of cases of the Indian variants are mounting and there are significant concerns for health officials.
At a briefing, health officials confirmed that there were 58 cases of the B.1.617.1 and 97 cases of B.1.617.2 variants here as of Wednesday.
The number of B.1.617.2 is up from 72 as recently as last Friday.
The HSE's chief clinical officer Dr Colm Henry said that while the Indian variants are more transmissible, he pointed to recent studies which say Pfizer and AstraZeneca are effective against it after two doses.
As the vaccine roll-out continues, Dr Henry said it is proving more successful than they had anticipated.
“We were afraid when the vaccine arrived first that people wouldn’t take it, but in fact we have seen demand which was difficult to have predicted, right through all age groups.”
Damien McCallion, HSE lead on vaccines said 4,000 housebound people have so far signed up for at-home jabs while 2,700 have their first dose.
He also said the numbers vaccinated from the Group 7 on the vaccine priority list is on target.
These are 300,000 people aged 16 to 64 in this age category with a high risk from Covid-19 due to having illnesses including some cancers and respiratory illnesses.
Up to 300 GPs who could not sign up for this particular vaccination programme will be able to use a portal to refer their patients to a mass vaccination centre. This was delayed by the cyberattack Mr McCallion said.
There is no ‘geographic lottery’ for this group in accessing the vaccine, Mr Reid added.