Just got me swine flu vaccine....

CathyMoran

Hugs to your wife, I hope that she is OK, and of course best wishes to all of you. I am paranoid about avoiding it as I am in 2 high risk groups, will ask at the maternity hospital today about the vaccine as my gp is reluctant to give it to me.

AmcD

drzhivago wrote: »

Regarding vaccinations in ED/Hospital opportunistically I agree with you there are volumes of patients attending who may not be seeing general practitioner at this time and thus could benefit from same, it would be nice if the DOH directed some of the funding that way as my understanding is if the hospitals decide to do that they would not be funded on the dame basis as GPS are for the vaccinations

Hospitals are probably hoping that they will not be funded on the same basis as GPs. At the moment we are working flat out just to see all our sick patients/regulars (as I'm sure most surgeries are). This means that we have to set up swine flu vaccination clinics during out-of-hours. I don't think my boss can afford to pay us all for doing this. She is hoping at best to break even. It is quite unbelievable the amount of work it involves trying to get an accurate list of high-risk people and contact them all and then vaccinate them twice. This is despite it being a computerised practice. On top of this it seems the we will be personally held liable if we don't vaccinate all the high-risk people.
One of the most frustrating aspects of the whole thing is that we only seem to find out what is happening by listening to the media. The HSE don't seem to think it is a priority to inform GPs of what is happening.
(just to mention- we are a mostly GMS practice)

tallaght01

AmcD wrote: »

Hospitals are probably hoping that they will not be funded on the same basis as GPs. At the moment we are working flat out just to see all our sick patients/regulars (as I'm sure most surgeries are). This means that we have to set up swine flu vaccination clinics during out-of-hours. I don't think my boss can afford to pay us all for doing this. She is hoping at best to break even. It is quite unbelievable the amount of work it involves trying to get an accurate list of high-risk people and contact them all and then vaccinate them twice. This is despite it being a computerised practice. On top of this it seems the we will be personally held liable if we don't vaccinate all the high-risk people.
One of the most frustrating aspects of the whole thing is that we only seem to find out what is happening by listening to the media. The HSE don't seem to think it is a priority to inform GPs of what is happening.
(just to mention- we are a mostly GMS practice)

Is it two vaccines in Ireland???

There needs to be mass vaccination planning in the pandemic plan. It wouldn't surprise me if Ireland doesn't have a pandemic plan.

In Oz, we have a whole team, working from the public health dept, setting up mass vaccination clinics.

It's crazy to rely on GPs for this, especially over the winter months. The HSE really needs a sustainable plan for next time, when it might be avian flu or SARS.

nesf

tallaght01 wrote: »

It's crazy to rely on GPs for this, especially over the winter months. The HSE really needs a sustainable plan for next time, when it might be avian flu or SARS.

I imagine it'll probably be some combination of GPs and drop-in clinics set up. GPs are in the best place to distribute the vaccine for a large segment of the population I'm afraid with how we're set up unless you want to untangle the mess that is healthcare coverage that is rural Ireland (it's a mess because of population density more than anything else).

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm fairly sure we don't have a centralised database of all patients with all their conditions/histories which would massively aid any vaccination plan (generate the list based on certain flags, mail these people a vaccination card that they can take to their GP or a temporary vaccination clinic with the GP system as a back up where people who didn't receive a card but didn't could get one through a call to their GP). The problem with such a centralised system is privacy and it'd be very hard to convince everyone that this would be a good idea because data security is a lot poorer than pen and paper security and medical records are possibly amongst the most sensitive bits of information you can have about a person. So while it'd be great for public health emergencies like this, it'd invite a huge storm of trouble every time there'd be an information leak. Without such a system you have to rely on GPs and Hospitals who can work out who is in a high risk group from their records.

tallaght01

GPs may be in the best position insofar as they are a pre-set up clinic. BUt they have very little extra capacity. For even basic herd immunity in Ireland you'll need about 1 million vaccinated.

That's almost impossible in winter.

We haven't been contacting people with pre-existing health probs. We've been running a major public awareness campaign, telling people they can get the vaccine for free.

Setting up a clinic in every hospital means that people from the outpatients departments can get vaccinated while in for their visit. So can pregnant women and visitors.

We've gone out to health centres, community centres, school halls etc.

This needs to be brought to the community. I guess the problem is in Ireland that it's not free. In Oz it os. So we don't need any admin. You can just turn up anywhere and get it. I was in and out within 3 minutes of arriving for mine. Though had to stay in a waiting room for 15 mins after in case I had a reaction.

AmcD

I agree about GPs having the patient's history and contact details and being probably best placed to have a go at compiling a high-risk list. We also have the cold-chain system and are used to giving vaccines. Unfortunately even with the best computer system it is a lot of work. We have to look up every single patient on the list to see if they qualify or not. For example we have to look up every child who has ever had inhalers prescribed to see if they have active/moderate asthma or not.
This high-risk swine flu list is quite different from the usual flu list that we have. We are specifically asked to target people who are <65years. Normally the flu list is mostly the over 65's. Now we have to get all our pregnant women and also people with BMI >40 ( as well as lots of other conditions eg liver disease, sickle cell etc). As a result we were recently sitting in the office trying to guestimate whether our larger patients had a BMI > 40, as sometimes their weight might be recorded, but not the height etc. It was a bit surreal.
Our practice manager is getting flustered because we are told we need all the patients' details including PPS. We won't get paid without this, but they have not specified how we get paid. There is no specific form, as there is for every government scheme, yet they are already telling us we won't get paid if we don't submit the correct information.
I wish the antenatal and respiratory outpatient clinics could be involved in this to help us out. We are currently trying to give all our regular flu jabs at the moment too.
Just to note- there has been a huge rise in flu-like illness in the past week in my area. I am presuming it is probably swine flu. At least I should be immune to this after being coughed and spewed on so much in the past week.

Tallaght01- yes we are being told to give 2 swine flu jabs, the second one after a three week interval.

nesf

Actually, serious side question: Our child is due in December. Will she be born with some immunity and will she gain some immunity from breastfeeding against H1N1 if my wife does have it? (My wife is planning on breastfeeding for the first 12 months similar to what she did with our first child)

kowloon

This may be an incredibly stupid question, so all the more reason to put it in here rather than start a new thread: I've just had the swine flu, am I immune from getting it again?
I was told by my doc to get the vaccination as I'm diabetic, but managed to catch the flu before I had the option. So I don't need the vaccination now do I?

sicguy

kowloon wrote: »

This may be an incredibly stupid question, so all the more reason to put it in here rather than start a new thread: I've just had the swine flu, am I immune from getting it again?
I was told by my doc to get the vaccination as I'm diabetic, but managed to catch the flu before I had the option. So I don't need the vaccination now do I?

I remember reading some info released by the WHO or HSE that they still advice people to get it even if they had it as it's fairly likely their immune system may not have had a strong enough reaction to provide immunity.

Amtmann

Got the shot yesterday. Felt fine after it, but my left arm (round about the spot where I was injected) feels as though it's badly bruised (which it isn't), or like I've been stung by a bee. This is a normal sensation after recieving this vaccine, I believe?

A Neurotic

Was at a clinic in town yesterday (college thing) while they happened to be administering the vaccine. They'd had two anaphylactic (my new medicine word of the week ) reactions in the couple of hours before we got there. Two ambulances were called. I take it these are uncommon? Seemed like a bit of a nightmare.

tallaght01

A Neurotic wrote: »

Was at a clinic in town yesterday (college thing) while they happened to be administering the vaccine. They'd had two anaphylactic (my new medicine word of the week ) reactions in the couple of hours before we got there. Two ambulances were called. I take it these are uncommon? Seemed like a bit of a nightmare.

Very very uncommon. You'd normally have to see thousands upon thousands of patients t see anaphylaxis in any vaccine. You sure it wasn't a vasovagal?

I don't think we've had a single anaphylaxis to it in oz, and we've been vaccinating for a while now.

imported_guy

tallaght01 wrote: »

Very very uncommon. You'd normally have to see thousands upon thousands of patients t see anaphylaxis in any vaccine. You sure it wasn't a vasovagal?

I don't think we've had a single anaphylaxis to it in oz, and we've been vaccinating for a while now.

inb4 tallaght gets the h1n1 aids cancer

(j/k :P)

i havent got it yet, im not worried, and my dad is a doctor he has only got the normal winter flu shot and not the swine flu one, but i heard in cork they are setting up to give the shots at neptune basketball stadium for a week or 2 and some other places.

DancingQueen:)

I mine on Wednsday and it's still sore As Furet said it feels like i have a big bruise but there's no mark.

A Neurotic

tallaght01 wrote: »

You sure it wasn't a vasovagal?

I'm positive that my GP/tutor told us they were both anaphylactic. It's possible he was lying in order to teach us something, I suppose.

tallaght01

A Neurotic wrote: »

I'm positive that my GP/tutor told us they were both anaphylactic. It's possible he was lying in order to teach us something, I suppose.

I doubt he was lying. But there was either an extraordinary cluster, or there was a misdiagnosis.

You should ask if you can see the follow-up letters that A+E will send to him, to see what their final Dx was. Will also give you an indication about how they treat anaphylaxis/allergies. Might give you an impetus to look at the different routes for administration of the drugs for anaphylaxis (IM for adrenaline...which strength they use, IV for hydrocortisone...what dose etc?). There's a learning opportunity there. If you wanted to be SUPER studious, you could follow it up with the local public health unit. All adverse reactions should get reported to them (your GP should have done this, or the practice nurses....I think that's still the case) and they'll investigate the batch etc.

I don't know what year you're in, but these are issues that could potentially come up in finals.

A Neurotic

tallaght01 wrote: »

I doubt he was lying. But there was either an extraordinary cluster, or there was a misdiagnosis.

You should ask if you can see the follow-up letters that A+E will send to him, to see what their final Dx was. Will also give you an indication about how they treat anaphylaxis/allergies. Might give you an impetus to look at the different routes for administration of the drugs for anaphylaxis (IM for adrenaline...which strength they use, IV for hydrocortisone...what dose etc?). There's a learning opportunity there. If you wanted to be SUPER studious, you could follow it up with the local public health unit. All adverse reactions should get reported to them (your GP should have done this, or the practice nurses....I think that's still the case) and they'll investigate the batch etc.

I don't know what year you're in, but these are issues that could potentially come up in finals.

I'm in first year, and the GP is overseeing a newborn case study that I'm doing for a Human Development module. All of the above is a little out of my depth to be honest

Interesting though. I'll be sure to ask him about it next time I visit!

tech77

Lads (by lads i mean GPs, infectious disease specialists, epidemiologists/public health doctors i guess ) dunno if this has been answered but there seems to bit of debate about whether you should get one or two shots.
They were saying one shot sufficed originally- now i hear uncertainty about this.
Can anyone shed light on this.
Is one indeed sufficient?