Frontline NHS workers in England who haven’t had both their Covid jabs by winter could be sacked or at the very least demoted.
The Government today launched a six-week consultation into plans to make vaccination a legal requirement to work with NHS patients.
Under the plans, 1.2million frontline NHS staff will be required by law to be jabbed under plans to reduce transmission in hospitals.
Those who refuse the jab will reportedly be barred from working with patients, meaning that they will likely be redeployed or risk losing their jobs.
Figures show around 92 per cent of NHS trust staff have received one dose of a vaccine, with 88 per cent of staff having received both doses. The figures are lower in London, where only 86 per cent have had a first jab.
Plans would also require NHS staff to be vaccinated against the flu, amid warnings that the UK will be hit with a bad bout this winter due to a lack of natural immunity.
The move would bring the NHS in line with the care sector, where staff working in elderly care homes are required to be fully vaccinated against Covid.
But it comes despite fears among NHS bosses it could trigger a staffing crisis, hampering efforts to tackle the enormous care backlog.
They have also warned it could be discriminatory, as vaccine uptake is lower in some ethnic minority groups.
And a member of the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) — an independent body that advises the Government on vaccine policy — said making jabs compulsory would feel ‘like an admission of failure’.
The NHS confederation, which represents organisations in the health service, has argued that compulsory vaccination is unnecessary because NHS staff are ‘overwhelmingly doing the right thing’.
The 1.2million frontline NHS staff are expected to have to get the coronavirus vaccine
Figures show around 92 per cent of NHS trust staff have received one dose of a vaccine, with 88 per cent of staff having received both doses. The figures are lower in London, where only 86 per cent have had a first jab
The Government announced vaccinations will be compulsory for all care workers from November 11, despite warnings that tens of thousands of carers could leave the profession as a result.
A government source told The Times: ‘It’s only right that those who are caring for people who are particularly vulnerable to coronavirus should be vaccinated. This will save lives.’ They added that Boris Johnson had personally backed the plan for mandatory vaccination for NHS workers.
Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said on Sunday the move was ‘right and responsible’ as NHS staff looking after vulnerable patients have a ‘duty of care’ to get inoculated.
But Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the Council of the British Medical Association, said in June that ‘compulsion is a blunt instrument’ and that implementing a blanket rule would ‘raise new ethical and legal implications’.
And JCVI member Professor Adam Finn told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that compulsory jabbing of all NHS staff would imply messaging was not effective enough.
Professor Finn, a professor of paediatrics at the University of Bristol, said: ‘It’s a kind of an admission of failure. It’s like saying you can’t either find the time or find the ability to explain to people why it makes sense and create the culture in which everybody does it because they understand why it’s important.
‘If you build a culture, it becomes the norm and everybody does it.’
But he added that he understood why it is being considered.
‘We are in a pandemic and so things sometimes get done differently,’ he said.
The six-week consultation process will take views on whether vaccine requirements should apply for health and wider social care workers – those in contact with patients and people receiving care.
It would mean only those who are fully vaccinated, unless medically exempt, could be deployed to deliver health and care services.
The Government previously said all staff in registered care homes in England must be vaccinated against Covid-19 from November 11, unless medically exempt.
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) Social Care Working Group has already advised the overlap between the sectors makes a strong scientific case for there to be similar approaches to vaccination.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said the consultation would focus on the proposals, their scope, and any potential impact mandating vaccines could have on staffing and safety such as reducing staff sickness absence.
The process will also seek views on whether flu vaccines should be a requirement for health and care workers.
Findings will then help inform decision-making around how the mandate could be implemented and who could be exempt.
Staff, healthcare providers, stakeholders, patients and their families are being urged to take part, with a final decision expected this winter.
According to the DHSC, around 92 per cent of NHS trust staff have received one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, with 88% of staff having received both doses.
However, the DHSC says new data shows uptake rates between NHS trusts can vary from around 78% to 94% for both doses.
National flu vaccination rates in the health service have increased from 14% in 2002 to 76 per cent last year. But in some settings, rates are as low as 53 per cent.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid urged all health and social care staff to be vaccinated, regardless of the outcome of the consultation.
He said: ‘Many patients being treated in hospitals and other clinical settings are most at risk of suffering serious consequences of Covid-19, and we must do what we can to protect them.
‘It’s so clear to see the impact vaccines have against respiratory viruses which can be fatal to the vulnerable, and that’s why we’re exploring mandatory vaccines for both Covid and flu.
‘We will consider the responses to the consultation carefully but, whatever happens, I urge the small minority of NHS staff who have not yet been jabbed to consider getting vaccinated – for their own health as well as those around them.’
The care industry has previously expressed concern over the effect mandatory vaccination may have on the sector’s already-stretched staffing levels.
Last month, the Institute of Health and Social Care Management (IHSCM) surveyed more than 1,000 care managers in partnership with the PA news agency.
The survey found that nine in 10 managers said their workplace was experiencing staff shortages or having difficulty recruiting.
A third of managers (32.8 per cent) said they had staff quit or hand in their notice over the requirement to be vaccinated, while more than half (55.2 per cent) said they feared they would have to dismiss staff over the coming months because they had not been vaccinated.