“It was the best day in my working career that I can remember,” Dr Paddy Meagher says about last Saturday when Covid vaccinations were administered at Merlin Park.
That four members of the Meagher family were on medical duty merely added to the sense of satisfaction.
Dr Paddy, his wife and nurse Cathy, daughter Dr Ciara, and medical student Joe were all assisting people over the age of 85. The Meagher’s other child, Alice, is currently working as a doctor in Beaumount Hospital too so they have been centrally involved.
“Joe is a second med student, Alice is a junior doctor up in Beaumont Hospital, and Ciara is finishing off her GP training,” Dr Meagher explains. “We were all on duty bar Alice. Joe was front of house, meet and greet, Cathy was involved in the organisation of all the different practices, to make sure people were going through the right channels."
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“I was administering the vaccine," Dr Meagher continues, "and Ciara was doing the paperwork and observing the people afterwards. You have to observe them for 15 minutes, she was doing that. You had different practices in Unit 3 in Merlin, all practices were vaccinating at the same time.”
Game on
With 20 students volunteering in the centre hope was in the air according to Dr Meagher. “It was just so good, we have been waiting so long for it, just to get started, to get going,” he says.
“It is a bit like a game, the ball is in. It is game on. So for us it was very much a game on situation. We were delighted to get going. Every other GP was the same way. There was almost a carnival or celebratory atmosphere.”
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Now that the vaccinations are beginning to be rolled out Dr Meagher is hopeful about the future. “The vaccines are very efficacious, that is hugely encouraging,” he replies. “When you look at something like a measles vaccine, that only has something like an 88 per cent efficacy, they have been developed over many years.
'The way it worked, any practice that had more than 200 over 70 patients were allowed to order the Pfizer vaccine'
“We are dealing with these vaccines with a 94 or 95 per cent efficacy. We are dealing with hugely efficacious vaccines, the same goes for the flu vaccine which might have an efficacy of 70-75 per cent, whereas these are terrific vaccines.
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“The side effects are more common with them, certainly a pain in the arm seems to be common, but I certainly think that is a price worth paying.”
Unit 3 of Merlin Park was used as a centre for smaller practices last weekend. “The way it worked, any practice that had more than 200 over 70 patients were allowed to order the Pfizer vaccine,” Dr Meagher says.
“The Pfizer vaccine is the vaccine that has to be stored at very low temperatures and it has a whole load of paperwork with delivery. So because of logistics, they decided they'd just deliver to the larger practices. All of the smaller practices were allotted a booth in Merlin Park, a vaccination slot to get the vaccinations done. Our slot was last Saturday.”
Shots
Throughout the coming weeks and months this method will continue to be adopted. “I got all of my over 85s done in that time,” Dr Meagher adds.
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“The way it works out you have six shots in a vial of Pfizer. There is a minimum of six shots, but sometimes because of variations you can get a seventh. I had 17 patients, I was only able to get six doses per vial I gave 18 vaccinations on Saturday so I had one sub, one under 85 and all of the rest were over 85. I had to give a couple of disappointing phone calls, but we will get those on the next vaccination day.
“This is the pattern they are going to follow. The next cohort will be 80-85 year olds. In my case I will be calling I think 29 in that cohort. If that is the case I will probably only have one sub, but I will try to have another five on standby just in case I get more than six doses per vial.”
At long last, the journey is under way.
