A Co Longford GP has said nearly 400 vaccines were administered to people out of sequence on Saturday after an over-supply of the Pfizer vaccine was delivered to a surgery in Longford town.
Dr Paul Trueick, a GP at Longford Medical Park, said that on Thursday morning an over-supply of the Pfizer vaccine, which would provide around 1,400-1,500 doses, were delivered to the surgery of Dr Syed Ali who had ordered around 50-60 vaccines.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, Dr Trueick said: "This was the massive over-supply of vaccines, which couldn't go anywhere and had to be put into people's arms".
"They had to be vaccinated as the other option was they were put in the bin, that wasn't going to be an option."
Dr Trueick said initially it was "on a first-come-first-serve basis but then as time went on, it was more concentrated on trying to get Cohorts 4 and 7 as best we could".
He said: "Calls went out to local garda stations, people who the staff felt were deserving of vaccines, so we tried to get those done, but inevitably people came through the cracks and people were vaccinated who just arrived".
They spread the word through social media and before they knew it "there were hundreds queuing up outside his surgery and that went on till Saturday night," Dr Trueick added.
He said gardaí had to come to disperse the crowds of people at 8-9pm as crowds were still arriving. The staff had been there all day and the doctors "just had to call a halt".
The GP said people were quite patient, they were happy if they were going to get it and those who did not were reasonable and said they understood.
He said staff at Dr Ali's surgery along with staff from a surgery in Athlone administered the vaccines and "they did trojan work".
"No-one from higher up in the HSE got in touch with us, as far as I'm aware, so it was really left to the staff on the ground," Dr Trueick added.
A spokeswoman for the Health Service Executive said: "The HSE is engaged with the practice to ensure that the vaccine is utilised in line with allocation guidelines and clinical judgement."
