A Donegal health centre has apologised after saying on Tuesday that it would cancel or defer the appointments of patients who were not vaccinated against Covid-19.
The Lifford and Castlefin Health Centre were inundated with complaints after posting the notice on their Facebook page, the Donegal Daily reports.
The health centre has since reversed the policy, which was welcomed by Aontú representative for Donegal, Mary McSweeney.
The Facebook message from the centre said: “As of today 9th November we ask that anyone attending the Health Centre for face to face appointments with all GPs/nurses/DXA etc you will be asked to provide your Covid passport or proof of vaccination at reception.”
“Failure to provide this documentation will result in your appointment either being canceled or you will be asked to wait in your car until the doctor can call you back.”
A series of upset and angry comments in reaction to the post led the centre to remove the advice.
The centre apologised for the post saying it didn’t wish to be “misinterpreted” by patients.
“The Post was open to misinterpretation and we apologise unreservedly for this. All at Lifford Health Centre remain committed to providing the highest standard of care for all our patients regardless of vaccination status.
“All at Lifford Health Centre remain committed to providing the highest standard of care for all our patients regardless of vaccination status,” it said.
Aontú representative Mary McSweeney said she welcomed the reversal of the policy in the original post.
“I am delighted that the centre has issued an apology for what would have been blatant discrimination. It would be horrendous if unvaccinated patients were told not to attend the surgery. A lot of people found the advice to ‘stay in your car’ and ‘the doctor will phone you” very upsetting. There must be no discrimination in a doctor’s duty of care to patients,” she said. “It would be alarming to think our GPs would ever allow this to happen,” she added. “Well done to the service users of the area who obviously voiced their concerns to bring about the change of heart by the centre.”