By Paul O’Donovan
“Hopefully this is the start of the end. There was a great sense of excitement all around. There was a very positive vibe and hopefully there is a light now at the end of the tunnel,” said Mullingar Clinical Nurse Manager Alva Whelan after she received the new covid vaccine in Mullingar Regional Hospital last Friday, 8 January.
Alva was one of the very considerable number of staff and other hospital personnel, close to 2,000, who received the covid vaccine at the hospital, during a marathon well organised procedure that began on Friday at noon, and continued until 10pm, and began at 6.30am on Saturday, and went on until 10pm and continued on Sunday until they had no more vaccine. The remaining number had to wait until additional vaccine supplies arrived.
Alva Whelan has been working at Mullingar Hospital for the past 15 years. However, last Friday, 8 January 2021 is a date that will stand out in her memory for a long time – the day the vaccine was rolled out.
“We didn’t know how much vaccine Mullingar Hospital was going to get and didn’t know when we were going to get it, it all happened very quickly,” said Alva when she spoke to Topic this week.
Understandably Alva was delighted to have received the vaccine and she went on to explain the procedure for administering the vaccine at Mullingar Hospital. “It was the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and it was for the entire staff of the Hospital only, and organised to be rolled out for the weekend. They began to give it out Friday and then Saturday and then Sunday, but on Sunday they ran out of vaccine, so they had to stop and reschedule those people for Monday and Tuesday instead.
“They got enough of the vaccine for 1,700 people but when you consider all the staff – all the nurses, doctors, paramedics, ambulance drivers, clerical staff, the laundry people, and all the auxilary people, there are so many to cater for. Any one of those people mentioned, working in or around the hospital, could very easily pick up the virus so everyone had to be catered for. You could be talking of in the region of 2,000 staff in total in the Mullingar Hospital alone. So they had to get more in and they continued rolling it out on Monday and Tuesday of this week”.
“There was great excitement last Friday. I don’t think anyone was nervous about getting the vaccine. We had been given lots of information about it and we all know this could mean the end of the virus. There was a lot preparation involved in the whole process. It was almost like a military operation. We had to get extra staff in, and there had to be a doctor on hand who was not on duty in the hospital, in case there were any reactions, but thankfully there wasn’t. There was a team of vaccinators working from 12 noon on Friday until 10pm on Friday night, and then from 6.30am on Saturday morning until 10pm on Saturday night and it was to continue until late on Sunday, but sometime on Sunday they ran out of vaccine”.
15 MINUTE WAIT
“When we were getting the vaccine, we had to wait 15 minutes and be observed after getting the vaccine to ensure there were no problems and all this had to be done while ensuring everyone was social distancing. Anyone who was a bit apprehensive about getting it has got it now and they are glad they got it at this stage, that’s the general vibe here at Mullingar hospital,” said Alva.
The staff will get their second booster vaccine in a few weeks’ time.
“We will get the second vaccine exactly three weeks to the day after the first one. Everyone has been given the same time as when they got the first vaccine to receive their second three weeks to the day. They say that we should then have immunity seven days after our second dose. We don’t know yet how long immunity lasts for, those immunity trials are still ongoing, but everyone is very positive here”.
While there was great excitement for the staff at receiving the vaccine reality soon brought them back down to earth as staff returned to their wards catering for all the patients and in particular those suffering from Covid-19 virus.
COVID WARD RUNNING AGAIN
“The situation in the hospital now is getting more serious. There are a lot more covid cases in here now, and we have had a lot more cases in the past 48 hours. There has been a big increase. The Covid ward is back up and running again and you have to remember we are a small hospital really and we don’t have huge capacity. So hopefully we can cater for what is ahead and all the staff will be working very hard and doing their very best to cater for everyone, including those coming in with the virus. But hopefully now that the vaccine is here and has been rolled out, hopefully this is the start of the end of this virus,” said Alva.
