A leading GP has stated, that patients may receive phone alerts, reminding them about their Covid-19 Vaccines.
These new jabs will require two doses, three to four weeks apart. This is because there is a risk that some people might not turn up for their second dose.
Anyone booking a flu jab with their GP, will receive a number of phone alerts. Patients usually will receive these alerts, about three days before the appointment, to ensure nobody misses out.
Dr Denis McCauley, said that the same procedure could be in place for Covid-19 Vaccines. He also mentioned that Irish patients are unlikely to receive a reminder card, as the health authorities in Wales are doing, “They will get their mobile phone with three reminders beforehand”.
He added, “Almost all of the people needing a vaccine will be on a GP database already”.
GP Database:
However, Dr Denis McCauley warned that any existing GP systems must be integrated with any new software.
“We need GP software and a one-click system, it can be done. If it is 17 clicks (to register a patient) we will be five or six days behind”.
“You have to imagine if a GP gives 400 vaccines in a day, then you have to spend a morning claiming them.” Dr McCauley also said that this system could be used in administering the flu-vaccine productively next year.
In Wales, each patient will receive a card, when they get their first vaccine dose. This shows the date, the batch number, and a reminder of the second dose in three or four weeks time.
The Health Department in Northern Ireland, was unable to confirm, if they are planning to do something similar.
Hope:
This is all after Margaret Keenan yesterday became the first person on the island of Ireland, to receive the vaccine outside of the medical trials. Táinste Leo Varadkar, described this as a day of hope.
Varadkar also hopes that the pandemic may end, some time in 2021.
