Medical unions hail ‘long overdue’ U-turn over jabs for NHS staff

No10’s rumoured U-turn on mandatory Covid vaccination for NHS workers has been ‘long overdue’, a medical union said today — but care home bosses are in uproar after losing nearly 40,000 staff to the policy last year.

A two-jab vaccine mandate was supposed to come into force in the health service on April 1, which would have given the remaining 80,000 unvaccinated frontline NHS staff until Thursday to get their first dose. 

But Health Secretary Sajid Javid is said to be meeting with ministers on the Covid Operations Cabinet (Covid-O) committee later today to finalise scrapping the controversial move.

The Royal College of Nursing hailed the move as coming ‘just in time’, with the jobs of around one in 20 frontline NHS employees hanging in the balance.

On Friday, those without jabs would have faced dismissal warnings and been asked to work out their notice periods until March 31. 

Patricia Marquis, the RCN’s director, claimed the policy made ‘no sense’ and could have actually ‘puts patients at more risk’.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘The vaccination is the right policy but forcing vaccination wasn’t, not in the middle of a staffing crisis particularly.’

But care bosses said the U-turn was a ‘slap in the face’ to tens of thousands of care home staff who lost their job over a vaccine mandate that came into force last November.

The chair of the National Care Association, Nadra Ahmed, said she was ‘frustrated’ and ‘saddened’ for all staff that had ‘needlessly’ lost their jobs. 

Boris Johnson appeared to confirm reports of a change to the NHS jab mandate today during a visit to the Port of Tilbury in Essex.

He told reporters: ‘I think that Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, is saying a bit more later on about how you might deal with different variants of coronavirus because they have different implications when it comes to transmission.’ 

A senior Government source told The Telegraph that the U-turn has been made possible because of Omicron — which is much milder than older variants and makes two jabs significantly weaker at stopping transmission. 

The RCN, Royal College of GPs and the Royal College of Midwives previously called on the Government to extend the deadline to prevent a mass exodus in the NHS.

But asked whether she would support scrapping the compulsory vaccination policy entirely, Ms Marquis said the RCN ‘absolutely would’.

She told BBC Radio 4: ‘We’ve been calling for it for some time now saying that mandating these vaccines is not the way to go about getting people to have the vaccination.

‘So, we absolutely would support the scrapping of the regulations.’

She said dumping the U-turn would come ‘just in time to stop the mass exodus [of staff] that we would have seen had the policy gone forward’.

‘The most important issue for us right now is the fact that there are so many nursing vacancies already.

‘It makes no sense to risk losing thousands of registered nurses and health care support workers from both health, and also what’s been lost from social care, which actually puts patients at more risk than not having nurses at all.’

The NHS currently has around 100,000 vacancies, including 40,000 nurse and 9,000 doctor positions remaining unfilled.

This is equivalent to about seven per cent of the workforce, and will only get worse should all employees be required to get vaccinated.

Reports are already emerging of NHS staff leaving the health service in England, and signing up again in Scotland and Wales where jabs are not compulsory.

Ms Marquis warned that, without action, most un-vaccinated staff will face redundancy notices this week.

She said: ‘The vaccination is the right policy but forcing vaccination wasn’t, not in the middle of a staffing crisis particularly.’

The director added that scrapping the mandate will mean ‘many, many nurses who were set to lose their jobs over the next few months will be able to stay in their jobs and continue to deliver patient care as safely as possible, given the lack of staff we already have’.

Ms Marquis urged all NHS staff to get vaccinated because Covid is still a ‘serious disease’, but said they did not support making the jabs compulsory. 

‘We would say that Covid is still a serious disease and would absolutely urge all nursing staff to get vaccinated,’ she said.

‘But the situation has changed in that Omicron is serious for those who are unvaccinated but actually overall as a country things have improved.’

Scrapping the Covid vaccine mandate for the NHS will only rub salt in the wound for the care sector, where all staff had to be inoculated from November.

Care bosses railed against the move at the time saying they were already in the middle of a staffing crisis — also with more than 100,000 vacancies — and that it would put vulnerable residents at risk.

But their calls fell on deaf ears among ministers, who instead unveiled a similar policy for the NHS.

Around 40,000 employees in the sector have already lost their jobs because they were not vaccinated.

If the policy is reversed it is not clear how many would return, with some already thought to have taken up jobs in Scotland and Wales where jabs are not compulsory.

The chair of the National Care Association Nadra Ahmed said she was ‘saddened foir all the people who may have needlessly’ lost their jobs after being told the compulsory jabs policy could now be lifted.

She told BBC Breakfast that the impact on the sector had been ‘devastating’ and left social care ‘on its knees’.

‘The people who we’ve lost, we hope they’ll think about coming back and we will do everything we can to try and encourage them to come back.

‘But they will have found other roles and they may be happier in their other roles now and not want to move again.’

She added, however, that they were ‘really happy’ to hear that the policy could be scrapped before it comes into force in the NHS.

The Prime Minister appeared to confirm reports that the NHS vaccine mandate could be dropped today.

On a visit to a factory at Port of Tilbury, Essex, he said it was ‘absolutely clear’ that everyone should get the vaccine.

But added that the Health Secretary would likely make an announcement later today on the mandate.

The chief secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke also did not rule out the U-turn during a round of media interviews this morning.

Asked about the move on BBC Breakfast, he said: ‘Again, that would be for the Health Secretary to determine — I wouldn’t pre-empt any announcement that he might make.

‘Obviously, again, as with the frontline NHS, the decision was taken that people who are working with the oldest people, some of the most vulnerable in our society, should be vaccinated.

‘There were good reasons for that — there are good reasons why you would want people who are dealing with very vulnerable people to have got protection for both themselves and those they are looking after.

‘Whether the shift to Omicron from Delta allows a change of policy in that space is something which, as I say, would be for health ministers to lead on.’

MPs gave the green-light to mandatory Covid vaccines for NHS staff in December, after voting through the move.

But since then reams of evidence has emerged suggesting Omicron is far milder than older variants. 

A senior government source told the Telegraph that ministers are U-turning on the mandatory jabs policy because Omicron is much less dangerous.

‘Omicron has changed things,’ the source said. ‘When we first introduced the policy, it was delta that was the dominant variant. That was very high risk in terms of how severe it was.

‘For omicron, while it is more transmissible, all the studies have shown it is less severe. That has changed the conversation about whether mandatory jabs are still proportionate.’ 

Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said: ‘There were always two risks to manage here: the risk of Covid cross-infection in healthcare settings and the consequences of losing staff if significant numbers choose not to be vaccinated.’ 

Prior to the reported U-turn, NHS managers had been advised they could move unvaccinated medics from the frontline into roles which do not involve direct patient contact. 

Bosses wouldn’t have to help staff find ‘suitable alternative employment’ and redundancy payments would not be made to those who are dismissed. 

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) health watchdog has said it will not take action against hospitals which decide it is safer to keep unvaccinated staff in place.

Last week Mr Javid said the policy was ‘under review’ and he did not want to lose a single worker to the mandate.

He hinted it may be scrapped because Omicron was less severe than Delta, meaning unjabbed workers posed less of a threat to patients.

Meanwhile, NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard told a board meeting on Thursday that the compulsory jabs policy posed ‘a real element of risk’ to services.

She said that aiming for universal uptake was ‘of course the right’ objective, but added: ‘At the same time, there is a real element of risk in this that local teams are facing and there’s a risk for our national level targets including the expansion of the workforce, particularly in nursing.’ 

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