Nora Owen
Question:78 Mrs. Owen asked the Minister for Health the evidence, if any, of hepatitis B vaccination the Department of Health seeks from doctors coming to work here from areas where hepatitis B is epidemic. [1741/94]
Written Answers. - Hepatitis B Screening.
Nora Owen
Question:79 Mrs. Owen asked the Minister for Health the guidelines for further action where health care staff fail to respond to more than two courses of hepatitis B vaccination in order to eliminate them as carriers. [1742/94]
Nora Owen
Question:80 Mrs. Owen asked the Minister for Health the procedures in place to screen the existing 800 foreign doctors who are registered to work in Ireland against hepatitis B. [1743/94]
Nora Owen
Question:81 Mrs. Owen asked the Minister for Health the preventive measures and ongoing monitoring against hepatitis B he intends to initiate to protect health-care workers, particularly surgeons in the light of the Dr. Gaud case in the UK; and the measures or regulations that are in force for the detection of hepatitis B in health-care staff to prevent patients from being infected. [1744/94]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 78 to 81, inclusive, together. It has been my Department's policy since 1988 that all health care staff whose occupation exposes them to contact with blood should be offered immunisation against hepatitis B. It is clearly in the interests of all such staff and their patients that they should be immunised but to date it has not been compulsory. However, some health care workers do not choose-opt to be vaccinated under the current programme and in addition there may be a small number in whom vaccination does not induce immunity and the question of drawing up guidelines for further action is currently being considered in my Department in conjunction with the health boards. This review relates to all health care staff and not just foreign doctors.
The Medical Council's "Guide to Ethical Conduct and Behaviour and to Fitness to Practise" stipulates that doctors suffering from contagious-infectious diseases should put themselves in the hands of their professional colleagues for treatment and counselling and for advice on how far it is necessary for them to limit their professional practice in order to protect their patients. It is clearly unethical for doctors who consider that they might be infected with a serious contagious disease not to seek diagnostic testing. I am also consulting with the Medical Council on this issue.