UK News

Government set to U-turn on mandatory vaccines for NHS staff

Health Secretary Sajid Javid has been under growing pressure to scrap the mandatory vaccination rule.

The Hoot - 31st January 2022

The government looks set to U-turn on its policy to introduce mandatory vaccinations for NHS staff today, according to reports.

Last November. reports emerged suggesting that the government intended to introduce the mandate for NHS staff - having already done the same for care workers up and down the UK.

But now, with the NHS under increasing pressure and already greatly understaffed, as well as the premiership of Boris Johnson coming under increasing pressure from the ongoing partygate scandals - with number 10 now the subject of a police investigation - it all looks set to change again.

There have been significant concerns that the sector could be left with a massive staffing crisis due to the number of workers refusing to be vaccinated, leading the Health Secretary to announce last week that the jabs requirement was being “kept under review”.

Government ministers will meet to decide whether to scrap mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for NHS staff in England / Credit: Flickr

It is understood that no final decisions have been made as of yet, but Mr Javid will meet ministers on the COVID operations cabinet committee today and he is expected to confirm the U-turn later this afternoon.

Although he said that he believes it’s the “professional duty” of NHS staff to get vaccinated, Mr Javid told the Health and Social Care Select Committee last Tuesday that, when the mandatory vaccination policy was announced, the dominant COVID variant was Delta, and it was right to “reflect” now Omicron was dominant.

The Telegraph reported yesterday that the government is saying the decision to U-turn on the policy is because Omicron is milder than previous variants of the virus. However, new variants could always emerge in the future.

These recent reports that the government ministers are meeting today comes just a week after the Department Of Health And Social Care said there were no plans to change the policy as it was “the right thing to do to protect patients”, despite previous reports suggesting ministers were considering a delay in its implementation.

Both the Royal College of GPs and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) had urged for the deadline of mandatory vaccination to be postponed and the British Medical Association called for an “urgent impact assessment” on how the policy would affect staffing numbers.

Patricia Marquis – Director of RCN in England – said: “If these reports are correct, this climbdown by government is long overdue.

“Vaccination is hugely important but this was the wrong policy, especially as it added to the current pressure on NHS and care services, and it was never in the interests of patient safety to threaten tens of thousands with dismissal in the middle of staffing crisis.

“We will continue to support government and employers to make the case for vaccination.”

Featured Image – Flickr