The board of Beacon Hospital has issued an “unreserved apology” and said it will carry out an independent investigation into the decision to vaccinate a number of private school teachers.
Covid-19 vaccine operations at the private hospital in Dublin have been suspended after it used 20 doses, left over after a daily vaccination session, to vaccinate staff members from St Gerard’s school in Bray.
In a statement on Monday evening, the hospital board apologised to patients, staff and the wider community “for the upset caused” by the vaccination of the teachers in the Beacon vaccination centre last week.
“The board is proud of the excellent standards of care maintained by our hospital and its adherence to the highest levels of governance and clinical excellence,” the statement added.
“In order to ascertain all of the facts associated with the operation of the vaccination centre and in line with our responsibility to ensure due process, the board is appointing Eugene McCague, former managing partner and chairman of Arthur Cox and former board member of the HSE, to conduct an independent review on behalf of the non-executive directors.
“Upon completion of the review, the non-executive members of the board will consider its findings and will at that time take any necessary actions required.”
National effort
The hospital board said that the Beacon had “sought to utilise our resources to play a significant role in assisting the national effort to combat the crisis” since the onset of the pandemic.
“The hospital offered its resources to the HSE to assist with the rollout of the national vaccination programme in January of this year,” it said.
“To date, the centre has vaccinated over 9,000 HSE staff. This vaccination centre was fitted out, staffed, operated and funded by Beacon Hospital in line with our commitment to assist the national effort to combat the pandemic and the devastating impact it has had in our country.”
Earlier on Monday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin described the decision to vaccinate the teachers as “repugnant” and said what happened was “unacceptable”.
The hospital has previously apologised for its decision, claiming it was made under “time pressure”.
It admitted the move was not in line with the HSE’s sequencing guidelines.
