NHS faces losing 73,000 staff over mandatory Covid jabs

NHS faces losing 73,000 staff over mandatory Covid jabs

Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced in Parliament on Tuesday, November 9, that all NHS staff in England must get a mandatory double vaccination by April 1, 2022. After this legislation was placed in force, a government impact statement has since estimated that, as a result of this move, the NHS stands to lose around 73,000 staff.

Javid made it clear that as a “condition of deployment”, this was the only way forward, unless they have a medical exemption. Included in this are all doctors, nurses, and dentists. It also affects receptionists, porters, cleaners, and ward clerks, as well as unpaid volunteers, private healthcare workers, agency staff, and trainees.

The Department of Health and Social Care admitted in its statement to expecting a ‘significant’ number to decline the mandatory vaccines. The aforementioned impact statement shows that an estimate of as many as 126,000 health workers – without having a medical exemption – could end up refusing.

Of this total, in England, they counted 73,000 NHS staff, 15,000 from the private healthcare sector. This Thursday 11, mandatory vaccinations come into force for social care workers, who account for another 38,000.

At this point, it is not clear whether vaccine refusals could be moved to a ‘back office’ position maybe, or if they will simply lose their jobs. In the statement it was confirmed that hospitals will have to cover the costs of “recruiting replacements for workers who may not fulfil the requirement of having both doses of the vaccine”. A scenario that could then create “potential disruption to health and care services”.