Anna Daly has publicly slammed the Beacon Hospital, after staff gave 20 extra vaccines to a private school in Wicklow.
Taking to Twitter, the Ireland AM star criticised the hospital for giving Covid-19 vaccines to teachers and staff at St Gerard’s Catholic School in Bray, instead of sick patients.
Anna’s 78-year-old father underwent treatment for prostate cancer last year, and is a patient at the Beacon.
The TV presenter tweeted: “My Dad (78) is a cancer patient in the beacon and there’s no sign of a vaccine for him yet. This is Ireland where the privileged look after the privileged.”
Anna was responding to another Twitter user, who had tweeted: “My mother is in category 4 and is a patient in the Beacon hospital undergoing ongoing treatment for cancer.”
“They’ve been unable to give us any information on when she’ll get the vaccine.”
My Dad (78) is a cancer patient in the beacon and there’s no sign of a vaccine for him yet. Look at @aoifstokes below – her mother also awaiting vaccine. This is Ireland where the privileged look after the privileged. #bray #vaccination https://t.co/3Bf1AW4iZ6
— Anna Daly (@daly_anna) March 26, 2021
The Virgin Media star vented her frustration on Twitter today, after the Beacon issued an apology over the vaccine distribution.
In a statement, the hospital explained: “On Tuesday, there were over 200 HSE no shows to scheduled vaccine appointments as a result of people being double booked by the HSE at the Aviva Stadium.”
“Beacon Hospital immediately liaised with the HSE, and the majority of these excess vaccines were subsequently used for HSE staff who were redirected to Beacon Hospital throughout the afternoon.”
“However, late on Tuesday evening there were still 20 leftover vaccines drawn up that needed to be used within a very short period of time.”
💉 Statement from the Beacon Hospital
Decision to give the vaccine to private school teachers in another county was made because of “time pressure”. pic.twitter.com/Yu3eSrp6pX
— Ben Finnegan (@_BenFinnegan) March 26, 2021
“As this was the AstraZeneca vaccine there were limitations to who this could be administered to.”
“In keeping with the zero-wastage policy, a decision was made to administer the left-over vaccine to teachers who were in a position to get to the Centre within the exceptionally short timeframe required. ”
Beacon Hospital Chief Executive Micheal Cullen added: “I recognise that the decision that was made was not in line with the sequencing guidelines in place from the HSE however it was made under time pressure and with a view to ensuring that the vaccine did not go to waste.”
“I sincerely apologise for the upset that this decision has caused and we are updating our approach to our back up list to ensure that this situation does not arise again.”
