Calls grow for Powys care home workers to have Covid jabs as condition of employment
Calls are growing for care home workers in Powys to have a Covid-19 jab as a condition of their employment.
The plea from Care Forum Wales, which represents nearly 500 independent social care providers, was given added momentum after the Department of Health and Social Care in England announced a five-week consultation on the idea.
It would effectively make Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory for staff working in Powys care homes.
Care Forum Wales believes that making vaccines a condition of employment would protect vulnerable residents from the virus.
Its chair, Mario Kreft, says care homes are duty bound to do everything in their power to protect their residents and staff.
He added: “It is good news that the consultation is occurring in England because hopefully this can pave the way for a similar approach here in Wales.
“The rollout of the vaccine has been a huge success but it would be a big mistake to think we are out of the woods just yet.
“Experts keeping telling us that a third wave of this terrible virus is now inevitable – it’s a case of when not if.
“In terms of staff being inoculated, some homes are doing incredibly well - we’ve heard stories of 100 per cent take up - but others are struggling.
Dangers
“It only takes one person to bring one of the new strains of the virus in to vulnerable people.
“We know the more contagious Kent variant is now the dominant strain in Wales and there is also some evidence that it is also more lethal.
"We are also having to contend with the dangers posed by other mutant strains which may be more resistant to the vaccine.
“I think everybody who works in social care should, unless there's a very good reason otherwise, get the jab and importantly be ready for a culture where we might have to have this each year for some years to come.
“At a time like this, we really need to be thinking of other people, not just ourselves – rather than potentially putting residents, colleagues and possibly members of our own families at risk. We should use every lever at our disposal to ensure this does not happen."
Mr Kreft said Care Forum was ahead of the curve at the beginning of the pandemic in calling on care homes to lock down long before it was required by the Welsh and UK governments.
He added: “We believe we now need to be proactive again so that we can continue to protect our residents and staff from this deadly virus.
“It is clearly sensible that care homes should be allowed to refuse to recruit anybody who has not been vaccinated.
“It is clear that, quite understandably, the families of residents will want assurances that the staff looking after their loved ones are vaccinated so that they are less likely to be able to pass on the infection.”
