There are concerns GPs will not participate in the vaccine rollout for 12- to 15-year-olds as an increasing number of patients fail to attend appointments.
Dr Denis McCauley, chairman of the Irish Medical Organisation’s (IMO) GP Committee, said doctors have seen an increase in “DNAs” – do not attends.
The Stranorlar-based GP said this is a result of people in younger cohorts signing up to multiple appointments to get vaccinated, often abandoning the slot with the GP.
“It has been a real problem for GPs,” Dr McCauley told the Irish Independent.
“Young people are putting in three requests, the pharmacy, the GP, the vaccination centre, and they are going to the first one. So if you have 10 appointments and people don’t turn up its quite difficult now to find someone to give it to.
“Before you could make the calls and get people in but now it’s more difficult. GPs are at the point where they have obviously saturated their patient group, they are having DNAs and people aren’t making appointments, so we are slowing down.”
For the full report, see today’s Irish Independent.
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