Covid mandatory jabs for NHS Staff won’t be enforced this winter

Covid vaccination for frontline workers has been made compulsory for NHS health care staff from next winter.

On Monday, the chief executive of NHS Providers, Chris Hopson, spoke out about why he believes there is a reason to delay the mandatory vaccination, an intervention which the health secretary has appeared to listen to strongly.

A survey done by NHS Providers across 172 leaders from 114 trusts across the country showed that 58% of respondents were in support of the mandatory vaccination, with 32% opposed and 10% not knowing.

This ‘small majority’, Hopson argues, shows the distinct possibility of losing staff during the crucial time of winter. 95% of trust leaders agreed with Hopson that introducing mandatory vaccines too soon could have a dire effect on staffing and were concerned about the possibility of staffing gaps this upcoming winter.

The latest figures shows that 90% of NHS personnel in England have had both doses of vaccines, and the public are also now being offered boosters after five months instead of six months to flatten the curve.

Hopson went on to express that mandatory vaccination for NHS staff, if done with ‘careful thought.’ could actually be one of the ways to convince those who are vaccine hesitate, but that the risks of losing unvaccinated frontline staff when the NHS is already at full capacity was too great to consider implementing this sooner than ‘April 2022’.

This comes after recent news that health and social care secretary Sajid Javid told Sky News he was “leaning towards” making Covid-19 vaccinations compulsory, though he specified that the government was “yet to make a final decision”.

In related news, from 11 November, mandatory vaccines against Covid-19 will become a condition of employment for those working in care homes for adults in England, except if they have a medical exemption.