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NHS, Home Health Care Workers Vaccination Mandate Overview
- Who: Thirty-two thousand home care staff and 103,000 NHS employees must be vaccinated under the UK’s vaccine mandate.
- Why: If a significant number of the tens of thousands of unvaccinated health care and home care workers are not vaccinated in time with the mandates, some, including a major union, fear the UK will face staff shortages.
- Where: The vaccine mandate affects health workers across the UK.
The UK could face “dire consequences” if the government tries to force the COVID-19 vaccine on tens of thousands of home care workers who are still unvaccinated, a major labour union says.
About 32,000 home care workers and 103,000 NHS workers are unvaccinated, according to Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Sajid Javid.
The government has announced that all home service workers need to be vaccinated by Nov. 11, and all health service workers need to be fully vaccinated by April, or face losing their jobs.
In response, labour union Unison—which represents both NHS and home care staff—told The Guardian there would be “dire consequences” for care homes due to the government’s “draconian approach.”
“The staffing crisis will become a catastrophe for a sector already on its knees. Some homes may have to close if care staff are barred from their jobs,” Unison General Secretary Christina McAnea said.
She added that it would be better for the government to encourage vaccination with “persuasion, not punishment.”
Vaccination Rates Rise, But Some Still Hesitant
Meanwhile, Javid said that while 90 percent of NHS staff had already been vaccinated, about 103,000 had not. Many of the unvaccinated included young women who want to get pregnant, or those from a minority ethnic background, The Guardian reported.
Despite warnings that many could leave the workforce due to the vaccine mandate, Javid said he was committed to pushing ahead with it, joining other countries like the United States.
He added that while some care home workers have quit, vaccination rates in the sector had risen sharply since he announced the mandate.
The news comes less than a month after a new Commons report blasted Britain’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic for leading to a higher death toll, leaving minority groups behind, and succumbing to “fatalism,” labeling it as “one of the most important public health failures” in the United Kingdom.
What do you think of the vaccine mandate in the healthcare sector? Let us know in the comments!
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