How much did they pay for the likes of Citywest hotel and all the other test centers around the country? Testing has been a nice little earner for those suitably qualified too, I'm sure the private testers are making less.
Delays in rolling out vaccine
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Okay, if they are including the cost of the extra surge capacity that's a different matter but if the impression I got was that the cost of the test to the HSE is €200.
We know how inefficient and dysfunctional the people who work in the HSE choose to be (despite the death and suffering their actions cause) but it's still staggering that they are 2-3 times less efficient that their private sector counterparts.
Paul O Mahoney
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I'll hazard a guess the overhead in the public system is a lot higher, I know retired paramedics a d ambulance drivers were contracted to deliver vaccines country wide, add the costs of renting say the Aviva, Punchestown to name 2 wouldn't be cheap and the all the back office staff that were employed.
The only private one I've seen at the airport is essentially a few porta cabins in an unused car park.
There's one on the Industrial Estate I work in that we use. If you are tested before 4pm they have the results to you by 7 the next morning. It's €90 for a walk-in or €70 corporate rate and they are making a good profit at that.
Given that the State already has the labs and staff I don't understand how it's (at least) 2-3 times as expensive.
Paul O Mahoney
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Tiny operation in comparison, the Hse was tasked with testing 99% of the population and the hidden costs would enormous, I did a back of envelope calculation last March 300/350 per jab popped out, and I would have been happy with €300 if that's what it cost. I think the cost per jab might be similar.
I further this by saying as sure as ducks lay eggs €200 wouldn't be fully absorbed cost either, I doubt the HSE has the capability of actually allocating costs on say a Activity Based Costing system or have all the Bill's in yet.
Paul O Mahoney
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Sorry I've said vaccines in one post but I ran both figures, but with simple likely costs, I mean Citiwest must be 5000 a day including staff.
Good point.
The old line 'If you can't measure, it you can't manage it' springs to mind.
Paul O Mahoney
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I wonder if the additional costs will ever be released, then we could have a proper look. But I can almost predict now that staff costs from services whose staff were transferred to pandemic work will still be reported as before , in original departments. If that happens we'll never know the actual cost of the pandemic and all its consequences to the health system.
Personally it's not something that I lie awake thinking about but it would be an exercise that they should do, and then when the next pandemic arrives they'll at least know what amount they need.
Personally it's not something that I lie awake thinking about but it would be an exercise that they should do, and then when the next pandemic arrives they'll at least know what amount they need.
Paul O Mahoney
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This is good news
I can't understand the delay in getting out the boosters when they have the vaccines and all the vaccine centres already set up. Is the government being influenced by calls to keep vaccines for the third world by the WHO. I know Niac have been sitting on their hands throughout , surely the government should rearrange Niac to get them moving.
After a successful initial vaccination campaign Ireland's COVID management seems to have lost the plot. Booster shots keep being inexplicably delayed, androgen testing keeps being announced but never implemented at any meaningful scale, no vaccination cert checks in gyms, schools, universities and other obvious places, no mask-wearing in primary schools, etc etc. On all these issues Ireland is at variance with virtually all other European countries and the infection numbers sadly reflect this. I wonder which particular vested interests are pulling the strings here behind the scenes - the private for-profit PCR testing industry perhaps?
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Masks are worn in secondary schools.
Remember the old line 'Never assign to malice that which can be explained by incompetence'.
It could potentially be both
TrundleAlong
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Is the booster vaccine more of the same mix of stuff as we got six months ago or has it been modified to take account of the Delta variant?
yes it appears to be the same formlation, the only difference (in the US at least) is that the Moderna booster is half the dose of the original.
I presume they'd need a new application for approval with the relevant regulatory agencies, both local (FDA) and international (EMA), if they changed the formulation.
I received the single shot J&J back in early summer and want to get a booster before visiting my elderly parents but I looks like I won't be able to get it for many weeks if not months. The country is drowning in vaccines and the infrastructure to administer them is there, but due to a mixture of government incompetence and what looks like a couple of closet anti-vax "scientific" advisors everything has grind to a halt. I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds this frustrating. Vaccination should be voluntary but those who want it should not have to face patronising and incompetent government obstructionnism.
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Really, are we? You have a source for that?
Sitting on over 2m doses so enough currently have enough in stock to everyone due a booster a shot with extra supplies available if and when needed. If there are delays, it won't be down to vaccine availability and we have already seen the infrastructure that is in place with GP's/Pharmacists and centres. My elderly mother is already weeks behind people who got the same vaccine as her and at the same time. She has already been told from her GP it will be the middle of December which will be 7 months after the second dose. I don't know why the delay.
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Q&A: Who is getting Covid-19 vaccine boosters and when will they get them?
More than 200,000 third doses of a targeted 1.4 million have been administered so far