THE NUMBER of hospital-based staff, and healthcare workers in other settings, who have been been vaccinated against the flu virus this season has fallen to less than one in three.
But University Hospital Limerick (UHL) had the highest single vaccination score for a hospital with more than 1,000 staff in all of Ireland, coming in at 58.4 per cent take up.
Of 4,156 workers in all areas in UHL, 2,428 were vaccinated against the flu, according to new figures.
Looking at regional data published by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), just over half of all staff in the six hospitals in the Mid West (53.5 per cent) were vaccinated.
This was the third highest score nationally for a HSE region.
Vaccination figures for workers in long-term care facility settings, including nursing homes, show just 30.1 per cent of staff in facilities run by the HSE in the Mid West were vaccinated – the lowest figure in the country. This figure rose to 38.1 per cent in private long-term care settings.
When it came to residents of HSE long-term care settings in the Mid West, 84.7 per cent of those eligible for vaccination had the jab.
In non-HSE run homes, the figure rose to 93 per cent of eligible residents.
More than one quarter of 5 to 12 year olds – 27.4 per cent – in the Mid West were given the flu vaccine, while 14.7 per cent of 2 to 4 year olds were also vaccinated.
69.4 per cent of over 60’s in the region opted for getting the jab, along with 24.3 per cent of 50-59 year olds.
Countrywide, the take-up rate among hospital-based staff has been declining from 70 per cent in the 2020/21 season to 50.3 per cent in 2023/24.
The national decline is also marked in healthcare workers who work in long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes, falling from 63.3 per cent in 2020/21 to 42.8 per cent last winter.
