Pregnant women and adolescent medical card holders who are being advised to get the whooping cough vaccinations under a new scheme will have to pay to get the vaccine, it has emerged

The IMO has said although the HSE announced two weeks ago that women over 28 weeks pregnant and adolescent close family contacts should in future get the whooping cough jab, there is currently no contractual arrangement with GPs to provide this vaccination free of charge to any patient, public or private.

In the wake of a doubling of whooping cough cases over the past year, the HSE announced on December 7 that in order to protect both infants and mothers, women who are over 28 weeks pregnant and who have not received a whooping cough jab in the previous 10 years should be offered the Tdap (tetanus/diphtheria/whooping cough) vaccine.

The vaccine is also to be offered to close family contacts of premature infants including siblings in the household who should have all age-appropriate vaccines including Tdap at 11-14 years, and older adolescent and adult close family contacts of preterm infants who have not received a whooping cough vaccine in the previous 10 years.

Currently, the whooping cough vaccine should be administered free of charge by GPs to medical card and private patients as part of the primary immunisation scheme for young children, as there is a contractual agreement and specific payment to cover the cost of providing and administering these vaccines.

IMO GP Chairman Dr Ray Walley told irishhealth.com, however, there was no such arrangement between the HSE and GPs for this  extension of the persussis (whooping cough) vaccine scheme just announced by the HSE.

In a letter to GPs, the HSE has told them that the Tdap vaccine must be secured privately for the new groups to be vaccinated against whooping cough. "This is currently under review nationally and we will inform you of any changes," the HSE told GPs.

Dr Walley said there was no contractual arrangement which would allow the pertussis vaccine to be provided by GPs to these new groups of patients, medical card or otherwise, free of charge.

He said that while the IMO was precluded by competition law from recommending what GPs should charge, he felt there would be two likely scenarios in the absence of a contractual arrangement for the new pertussis scheme.

Firtyly, they could provide a prescription for the vaccine, ask the patient to collect it at the chemist and to return to have the vaccine administered for a fee.

Otherwise, GPs could opt to purchase the vaccine themselves in their surgeries, administer it  and then charge the patient accordingly.

However he said in the latter scenario, many GPs would be reluctant to order in stocks of the Tdap vaccine as they could end up with unused supplies and would not cover their costs.

Dr Walley said the IMO would be raising the extension of the Tdap vaccine schedule with the Department of Health and HSE.