All frontline NHS staff in England WILL need to be fully vaccinated against Covid by next spring 

5.1k

View
comments

Sajid Javid today confirmed that frontline NHS staff in England will need to be double-vaccinated against Covid by April 1 or they will be sacked — but he was warned it could trigger an exodus of up to 100,000 workers.

Announcing the controversial plans in the Commons, the Health Secretary said it was the ‘first duty’ of everyone working in the health service to ‘avoid preventable harm to people that they care for’. 

Mr Javid said that after ‘carefully considering the responses and evidence’ from a Government consultation, the ‘scales clearly tipped to one side’ in favour of compulsory jabs. He claimed that the plans had the blessing of NHS England boss Amanda Pritchard, despite furious backlash from unions.

All frontline workers — including medics as well as cleaners, porters and receptionists — will be required to have both Covid jabs by April or lose their job.

Mr Javid said around 103,000 staff — eight per cent of the entire workforce in England — still haven’t had their first jab but it’s not clear exactly how many are deemed ‘frontline’.

The health service already has around 100,000 vacancies, including a shortfall of 10,000 doctors and 35,000 nurses. The GMB union warned the ‘heavy-handed’ policy will only worsen the ‘crushing’ staffing crisis.

Some trusts preempted the Government’s announcement when the direction of travel became clear. Officials at Southampton General Hospital ordered frontline workers in September to get vaccinated or face the sack. 

Nationally, only the Covid vaccine will be compulsory with the flu jab strongly recommended but not required for staff on hospital wards. Mr Javid threatened to make flu jabs compulsory in future, but said he was ‘not convinced’ it was needed at the moment.

The move will bring the NHS in line with care homes, where employees have until Thursday to get their second Covid jab or face the sack. 

Ex-Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt backed the policy last night after an investigation found 11,000 patients have died in NHS hospitals after catching the virus on a ward while getting treated for another condition.

But critics have blasted the ‘heavy-handed’ plans, warning they are neither ‘necessary nor proportionate’ given that more than 90 per cent of health workers have already been double-jabbed. This is significantly higher than the 80 per cent uptake rate in the adult population. 

Defending the Government’s stance this morning, Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said vulnerable people being treated in hospitals and care homes deserved to be ‘properly protected’.   

NHS staff can be exempt from the double-vaccine requirement if they have a medical reason, such as an allergy to an ingredient in the vaccine or previously experienced a serious side-effect.

No similar proposals have been announced for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which set their own policy on whether Covid vaccination is required.

Sara Gorton, head of the union Unison, slammed the policy. She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme ministers were running a ‘real risk’ and that it could have ‘really, really difficult consequences for the NHS’.

She said: ‘This isn’t about saying that it’s wrong, the vaccination programme is wrong, it’s saying that it is wrong to leap to the law, rather than stick with persuasion, conversation, peer group support to try and increase those rates beyond what is, let’s face it, a really, really high existing level of vaccination amongst NHS staff.’

The national officer at the GMB union, Rachel Harrison, also slammed the policy as ‘heavy-handed’ and warned it will send the already ‘crushing’ staffing crisis into a downward spiral.

She said: ‘Bulldozing this vaccine will exacerbate the already crushing staffing crisis we face across the NHS and ambulance service.

‘Both are operating under extreme pressures, after a decade of austerity and cuts, with an exhausted and demoralised workforce who are fearful of what is to come as we head through winter.

‘Staff are already leaving their employment and this will certainly force many more to go, as we are currently witnessing in adult residential social care as a result of this legislative change to their employment.’

A poll carried out by the union found only four in ten healthcare workers supported making jabs compulsory. 

Professor Helen Bedford, a children’s health expert at Great Ormond Street Institute of child health, warned that making vaccines compulsory could ‘backfire’. 

‘When there is concern about less than optimal vaccine uptake rates, making vaccination mandatory can seem the obvious solution — but it can backfire. It may make people who are just unsure about vaccination more resistant. 

‘There is plenty of evidence showing that it is preferable to provide opportunities to discuss vaccine concerns openly and non-judgementally with people who have doubts and to ensure there are adequate opportunities to access vaccination.’ 

Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers which represents hospital trusts, said making vaccines compulsory in the NHS may result in the health service losing ‘significant numbers of staff’.

He said: ‘The problem for both social care and the NHS is we run these systems incredibly hot on very, very fine margins. Both of us have got around 90 to 100,000 vacancies.

‘We are completely reliant on our staff to… work extra shifts in order to do the work that needs to be done.

‘So losing significant numbers of staff, particularly given the pressure that both of the systems are under at the moment, is a real, real problem.

‘And that’s why we’re very clear with the Government they need to help us manage this risk.’

But Mr Hopson added that the rule could help to boost uptake of the Covid vaccine, and encourage hospitals to open conversations with vaccine hesitant employees.

He said: ‘If you look at other nations that have done this, there is no doubt that if you do it carefully, at the point when you announce the fact that you are going to have mandatory vaccinations in the sector, it does provide quite a useful opportunity to then have those kind of further conversations. 

‘So if we get it right, actually, it could be quite a useful spur in some senses to drive the take-up up, but the bit that we just need to be careful of, as I said, is avoiding scapegoating people.’ 

The Department of Health has refused to comment on the timing of the announcement, which is expected to be made later today.

But Mr Raab fought minister’s corner today saying the policy would offer society’s most vulnerable the protection that they deserved. 

Although he refused to confirm reports that the jabs would be made compulsory for the NHS, he told Sky News that it was important to boost jab uptake by ‘any means necessary’.

Mr Raab said: ‘I think it is critically important in those vulnerable settings, care homes and the NHS and particularly as we go through winter, that the vulnerable people there are properly protected.

‘I think we need to get by any means necessary the level of jabs up.’

He added on ITV’s Good Morning Britain: ‘Ultimately we’ve got to make sure that the lives of those people in those vulnerable settings are safeguarded, and that’s a difficult choice, that’s one of the many difficult choices that we’ve got in Government.

‘But I think we’d be getting a lot of criticism if we weren’t taking those difficult decisions, and we were leaving people more and unnecessarily exposed than before.’

Matt McDonald, an employment lawyer at London-based firm Shakespeare Martineau, warned the NHS could be hit with a wave of unfair dismissal cases.

He warned: ‘Consultations with employees to discuss options and alternatives should take place before any dismissals.

‘However, alternatives could be difficult to find for NHS workers whose careers are based in the health service.

‘If this process is not carried out correctly, employers risk unfair dismissal claims from disgruntled unvaccinated ex-employees.’ 

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said last month he was ‘leaning towards’ making Covid vaccines compulsory for people working in the NHS.

But health leaders called on him to delay the plans until April to ensure that the health service could get through what is expected to be a very difficult winter.

A source involved in the discussion said last week Mr Javid had been ‘genuinely split’ over the decision. 

A consultation on making flu and Covid jabs a requirement of employment for NHS staff was concluded late last month, which ministers have considered before deciding on the policy.

An announcement on the policy is expected today, although officials would not confirm the timing.

Disgraced former Health Secretary Matt Hancock yesterday called for Covid jabs to be made compulsory for nurses and doctors before winter.

Mr Hancock — who lost his job after breaking his own Covid rules to kiss a former aide — said the policy should be in place ‘as fast as possible to save lives’. 

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he added: ‘There are some people who say this isn’t the way we do things in Britain.

‘But we already mandate vaccination against Hepatitis B for doctors. The British historic precedents for compulsory vaccination go back to the 1850s.’ 

Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus, Layla Moran MP, added: ‘It would be irresponsible to now implement a policy of mandatory Covid jabs given the unprecedented pressure facing the NHS heading into winter due to a lack of clear government policy.

‘Evidence heard by the APPG on Coronavirus made clear that to now introduce such requirements could further exacerbate staff shortages and risk pushing the NHS over the edge. 

‘This policy is a sign that government has given up on tackling the root cause of sluggish uptake, and risks having devastating unintended consequences.’

It comes after Britain’s social care crisis deepened as it emerged that just 3,000 people replied to a major recruitment drive to tackle staff shortages.

Hundreds of care homes say they may have to close and evict residents amid a potential shortage of 170,000 staff. 

The problem is being made much worse by the new rule insisting that everyone working in the sector must be double-jabbed by Thursday.

Around 60,000 unvaccinated social care staff in England are losing their jobs this week. 

Among them is Louise Akester, 36, seen weeping in an online video after she was fired from Alderson House, an NHS care home in Hull.

Concerned about potential long-term side effects from the vaccine, she said: ‘This choice should be my basic human right. I genuinely love my job with all my heart.’

Even before the rule came in, homes were struggling to recruit enough staff and the sector is teetering on the verge of collapse as staff leave for better-paid jobs in supermarkets, retail or hospitality.

It is feared that as many as 500 care homes may have to close in the coming weeks, leaving thousands of vulnerable people in urgent need of new places.