Covid jabs set to become compulsory for NHS staff in England

Covid jabs are set to become compulsory for NHS staff in England from April, according to reports.

The NHS has 1.45 million staff in England. It is expected that from April it will be compulsory for them to be vaccinated against the coronavirus pandemic. According to The Guardian, the official announcement is due today, Tuesday, November 9.

The decision will be controversial though and it is feared that some people may choose to leave the NHS rather than get vaccinated.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid has been warned that introducing compulsory jabs immediately would lead to staff leaving during the winter. This is the hardest time of the year for the NHS with winter pressures.

The chief executive of NHS providers Chris Hopson commented that most hospital bosses believe that compulsory jabs are a good idea. However, over 90 per cent are worried that it could cause more understaffing issues.

Hopson commented that the NHS is already carrying over 93,000 vacancies and the move could cause more issues. Hopson explained: “The government must recognise the risk of losing unvaccinated frontline staff and support efforts to maximise voluntary take-up first.”

One source in the NHS commented on the unprecedented pressure that the NHS is facing at the moment. They said: “Given the NHS is a horror show just now, with unprecedented pressure all over the place, to chuck an additional spanner in the works by making Covid jabs mandatory now would be foolhardy, and Sajid Javid isn’t a foolhardy politician.”

Making coronavirus jabs compulsory is controversial. The chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges Prof Helen Stokes-Lampard commented: “We do not think that making the Covid vaccine mandatory for doctors is either necessary or proportionate. So if it’s true that the Department of Health is pressing ahead with compulsory vaccination we would be very wary,”

“While we do think that it is the professional responsibility of doctors to get the jab, when we know that more than 92% of them have already done so, you have to ask why such a heavy-handed approach is being taken, especially when this could well lead to damaging disputes at a local or national level which would be nothing more than a distraction from the real challenges the NHS workforce is facing right now.”

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