Information for General Practices

Operational Guidance for Vaccination in General Practice

Operational Guidance is updated in response to any changes to National Immunisation Office clinical guidance, that impact the day to day operations of vaccination services within the community sector.

It sets out direction in relation to the approach, logistical arrangements and processes established for continued vaccine rollout as well as links to all of the necessary clinical information.

Operational Guidance for Vaccination in General Practice (PDF, 1.2 MB, 22 pages)

COVID-19 Vaccination for Spring 2024

HSE Vaccination teams will offer COVID-19 Spring vaccination for the following:
  • Residents of Residential Care Facilities (RCFs) for Older Persons
  • Eligible persons who are housebound (on GP referral).
  • Eligible persons in the custody of the Irish Prison Service
  • Those aged 5 to 11 with Immunocompromise associated with a suboptimal response to vaccination
  • In-patients in acute hospitals
  • Areas which are underserved by GP and Pharmacy coverage

Referral pathway for Housebound patients

HSE mobile vaccination teams will administer COVID-19 and/or Flu vaccines to persons who are housebound, on referral from their GP, once they meet the housebound criteria. An individual is housebound if they are unable to leave their home at all, or if they require significant assistance to leave the house due to illness, frailty, surgery, disability, mental ill health, or nearing end of life (end of life individuals can also be referred by specialist palliative care team). Individuals who cannot attend their GP Practice, Community Pharmacy or HSE vaccination clinic for clinical reasons and for whom this difficulty with attendance cannot be resolved by providing transport, may be referred to this pathway.

For new referrals, complete the Housebound Referral Booster Vaccination Form and send it to the Healthmail account based on where the individual resides, as listed below. 
Housebound Referral Booster Vaccination Form (XLSX, 0.02 MB, 4 pages)

Individuals previously referred by their GP for COVID-19 vaccination under the housebound programme and who are denoted on COVAX as housebound will be contacted by their Area Vaccination Team in order to organise both their COVID-19 and flu vaccines when they are next due.

CHO 

CHO 1

CHO 2

CHO 3

CHO 4

CHO 5

CHO 6

CHO 7

CHO 8

CHO 9

Email addresses for referrals

cho1housebound@healthmail.ie

cho2housebound@healthmail.ie

cho3housebound@healthmail.ie

cho4housebound@healthmail.ie

cho5housebound@healthmail.ie

cho6housebound@healthmail.ie

cho7housebound@healthmail.ie

cho8housebound@healthmail.ie

cho9housebound@healthmail.ie

CHO counties

Donegal, Sligo/Leitrim/West Cavan & Cavan/Monaghan 

Galway, Roscommon and Mayo 

Clare, Limerick, and North Tipperary/East Limerick

Kerry, North Cork, North Lee, South Lee, and West Cork

South Tipperary, Carlow/Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford

Wicklow, Dun Laoghaire and Dublin South East

Kildare/West Wicklow, Dublin West, Dublin South City, and Dublin South West

Laois/Offaly, Longford/Westmeath, Louth and Meath

Dublin North, Dublin North Central and Dublin North West

General Queries and Relationship management support: 

You can contact our Relationship management team by email at gpvaccines@vision.com or phone 081 800 8811.

How to join the Vaccination Programme for COVID-19 and Influenza

To take part in the Vaccination programme, you will require the following:

  • A PCRS contract
  • A National Cold Chain account
  • Registered to use a recognised GP Practice Management System (Socrates, HealthOne, Helix, CompleteGP) or GPVax to record vaccine administration records.

General practitioners can apply through the National Contracts Office.