Sir, – The burgeoning vaccination programme is welcome and at last offers a beacon of hope for some potential return to a semblance of normality for the older population, who have been cocooning for the past 12 months. However, it has come with the unwelcome caveat that older couples are to be treated as individuals, not as a family unit. Therefore, for example, in a family unit where there is one partner on either side of 80 years old, it will mean that there may be weeks or even months between the two partners getting the vaccine.
This is very poor planning.It also makes little if any sense, and indeed would seem to show a lack of empathy for the current plight of elderly couples.
It unfortunately also demonstrates yet again the lack of joined-up thinking that too often appears to pervade the planning of our health services. – Yours, etc,
Dr J MARK RYAN,
St James’s Hospital,
Dublin 8,