U-turn on NHS mandatory vaccinations welcomed as hundreds of Shropshire staff remain unjabbed
A government U-turn on mandatory Covid jabs for frontline NHS workers has been welcomed by the region's nursing union.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid has confirmed the controversial policy is under review, and has launched a consultation on the plans.
It came amid warnings that thousands of unvaccinated health staff across the country could face the sack on April 1 – with a February 3 deadline to have had their first jab.
The situation would add to the pressure being felt by under-strain NHS trusts across the country.
It also follows the policy coming into force in the care sector last year, with some workers being sacked or voluntarily leaving the profession.
Lindsay Meeks, Royal College of Nursing regional director for the West Midlands, said the proposal was "never the right or proportionate thing to do".
Thousands of workers across the West Midlands would be at risk if the government went ahead with the policy.
The latest figures – which record data up to the end of December – show that 936 county NHS workers were yet to have two jabs – and would be at risk of losing their jobs.
At Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust there were 641 workers without both jabs, with 92 per cent of the workforce having received two doses.
At the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital near Oswestry 164 workers were yet to receive both doses, while 93 per cent of the workforce met the criteria, and at Shropshire Community Health Trust there were 131 workers who had not received both jabs, while 95 per cent of the trust's staff had received both.
Ms Meeks said: "We welcome the about-turn on this. Requiring health care workers to be fully vaccinated in order to keep their job was never the right or proportionate thing to do.
“The NHS across the Midlands has a persistent shortage of almost 8,000 registered nurses. The workforce is already depleted and staff are exhausted by the pandemic, so the prospect of unvaccinated workers being dismissed was unthinkable. It would have seriously jeopardised patient care.
“We support vaccination for health care staff, and the vast majority of NHS staff are vaccinated, but we believe they should be able to exercise a choice about vaccination without facing an ultimatum to either have the jab or lose their job.
“Let’s remember that we are talking about responsible and trusted professionals who are already taking all due precautions at work to minimise the risk of catching and transmitting the Covid virus, such as wearing PPE and observing good practice on controlling and preventing infection.”
A joint statement from the chief executives of NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, Matthew Taylor and Chris Hopson, expressed frustration at an "11th hour change" in the policy.
They said: "NHS leaders are frustrated to have such a significant change in policy at the 11th hour given all the hard and complex work that has gone into meeting the deadline set by the government.
"They recognise the reasons the government has given for the changes – the risk to services and the different risk from Omicron compared to previous variants.
"But there will be concern at what this means for wider messaging about the importance of vaccination for the population as a whole.
"We must also be mindful of the frustration this late change will have caused for some staff and the government must ensure clear guidance is quickly made available to support managers to implement this change in approach.
"Finally, we are also conscious of the impact this will have on our colleagues working in social care. A large number of staff left their roles when mandatory vaccination became law in the social care sector last autumn. This U-turn will therefore cause similar frustration in social care given the disruption to service delivery that resulted from loss of staff last November."
