Beacon gave vaccines to staff of f irms on its campus

STAFF at companies that rent office space at the Beacon Hospital complex were vaccinated before the Government suspended their vaccination programme.

The Independent Review of the vaccination clinic at the Beacon Hospital by Eugene McCague – commissioned by the Board of the hospital – that was published last Monday, confirmed employees of companies located in the Beacon Court had, in fact, been vaccinated.

The report notes they were only vaccinated after healthcare workers at the hospital were offered the jab.

‘Third party contractors who attended in the hospital, and franchisees working in the integrated Beacon Campus, were not vaccinated until Beacon HCWs [healthcare workers] who wished to receive the vaccine had done so,’ the report said.

The report added that this practice ‘was in compliance with the Sequencing Guidelines and accorded with the approach taken in major public acute hospitals’.

The Beacon Court campus, which also houses the hospital,

‘They were told it was a perk of the job’

is home to a wide range of commercial businesses that rent office space.

According to the company’s website, 42 businesses are based in the Beacon Court.

Not all of the companies based in the Beacon Court availed of the vaccination offer. The Beacon did not reply to questions from this newspaper about the vaccinations.

The Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal that in at least one of these companies staff, who were working from home in different counties, travelled to the hospital for vaccination.

A worker in one of the companies told the MoS they were told it was a ‘perk’ of working for their company.

‘Some employees asked if it should be kept on the down low but were told “absolutely not”, that it was a job perk [by their employer],’ they said.

Some of the vaccinations took place the same week that the Irish Daily Mail, our sister newspaper, revealed that 20 excess doses of the vaccine were given to teachers at St Gerard’s private fee-paying school in Bray 13km away.

The children of the CEO of the Beacon, Michael Cullen, are pupils at the school.

The worker said the staff who were vaccinated became ‘pretty frightened’ that they were going to be part of the story after the revelations about St Gerard’s.

A spokeswoman for the HSE said they were awaiting the findings of their own independent report, due to be completed ‘in the next two weeks’.

The Beacon had been running a 10-booth clinic for free, with vaccinators working on their days off.

They vaccinated more than 9,000 people, predominantly frontline healthcare workers, before the service was halted by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, after a series of reports by the Mail.

The Mail revealed that Mr Cullen personally contacted the €7,420 per annum St Gerard’s school, that his children attend, to offer the vaccinations to teachers there.

The report commissioned by the hospital’s non-executive board found that Mr Cullen acted in ‘good faith’ in contacting St Gerard’s School and that the decision ‘was taken by Mr Cullen alone’. The terms of reference for the report have not been published.

The Mail also revealed that staff at the Park Academy Childcare crèche were vaccinated at the Beacon. The crèche chain has one crèche on the campus.

The report notes that while childcare professionals were not in the cohort being vaccinated, ‘a distinction can be drawn in the case of the Beacon Crèche’ as the business was on the Beacon Campus and provides childcare for healthcare workers at the Beacon.

The Mail also reported that the CEO of VHI John O’Dwyer, who is due to retire this year, was vaccinated at the Beacon.

The Board of VHI appointed Mr Mark Connaughton SC to investigate the circumstances in which Mr O’Dwyer, who was recovering from cancer, was vaccinated.

In a press release in May, the VHI said: ‘The investigator found no evidence to suggest that Mr O’Dwyer received the vaccine for any reason other than his vulnerability by reason of his medical conditions and recent cancer.’

A spokesman for Mr Donnelly, who is ultimately responsible for the vaccine rollout, said that the minister had not seen the report and that it was a matter for the VHI.

In a statement, the nonexecutive board of the hospital gave their backing to Mr Cullen when the report was released.

‘We as a Board, regret that this series of events happened, and apologise for the upset caused,’ the statement said.

‘However, having considered the detailed Review and the Findings of the Independent Reviewer, the Board has determined that it retains full confidence in Michael Cullen, our CEO.’

‘Minister Donnelly had not seen the report’