By Anna Whittaker, Local Democracy Reporter
Hundreds of unvaccinated NHS hospital workers in Nottingham are expected to avoid being sacked after the Government announced a U-turn on its mandatory Covid vaccination policy.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said on January 31 there are plans to scrap the rule, and a consultation is being launched.
In November, the Government announced frontline NHS workers in England would have to be fully vaccinated by April 1.
The Government has faced pressure to scrap the policy due to fears of catastrophic levels of job losses because some staff are still yet to get a jab.
The U-turn means all frontline NHS and social care workers in England will no longer have to be fully vaccinated in order to keep their jobs, provided Parliamentary approval is won following the consultation.
Mr Javid told MPs it was “only right” that the policy was reviewed – just days ahead of February 3, the date by which completely unvaccinated staff needed to have their first jab in order to meet the April deadline.
At Nottingham University Hospitals Trust (NUH), which runs the Queen’s Medical Centre and Nottingham City Hospital, Chief People Officer Neil Pease indicated last week more than 500 staff in total remain without a jab.
This means uptake has improved significantly since January 12, when trade union Unison told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that around 1,600 members of its 15,000 NUH staff remained unvaccinated.
Mr Javid said 84 per cent of people over 12 in England have been vaccinated and Omicron is “less severe” than other variants.
He said: “Given these dramatic changes, it is not only right but responsible to revisit the balance of risks and opportunities that guided our original decision last year.
“While vaccination remains our very best line of defence against Covid-19, I believe it is no longer proportionate to require vaccination as a condition of deployment through statute.
“Today I am announcing that we will launch a consultation on ending vaccination as a condition of deployment in health and all social care settings.
“Subject to the responses and the will of this house, the Government will revoke the regulations.”
Mansfield MP and leader of Nottinghamshire County Council Ben Bradley told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he welcomed the change.
He said: “I’ve spoken against it on several occasions in the commons. The impact on our health service and social care service, which locally I am responsible for, would be huge.
“We’ve already seen care staff having to leave the profession, and we would’ve been set to lose up to 10 per cent of our remaining workforce in home care.
“Whilst I fully understand a lot of people would rather have a vaccinated nurse or care worker than an unvaccinated one, truthfully that’s not the choice when you’re talking about redundancies on this scale.
“It would be a case of care/nurse worker or nobody and that is not a situation that we can cope with.
“It is a great thing and it is important for the service and all all those individual members of staff who have grafted throughout the most high-risk period of the pandemic to know that they are secure in their jobs going forward.”
In a letter to NHS employers, NHS England and NHS Improvement said: “Huge effort has been put into increasing the already high take-up among NHS staff, whether through one-to-one conversations or the many other methods deployed.
“This is very much appreciated. NHS England and NHS Improvement have always been clear that staff have a professional duty to do so.
“The Government’s decision is subject to Parliamentary process and will require further consultation and a vote to be passed into legislation.
“We are aware that, based on the guidance already issued to the service, you will have begun to prepare for formal meetings with staff on their deployment if they remain unvaccinated. This change in Government policy means we request that employers do not serve notice of termination to employees affected by the VCOD regulations.
“Thank you for the leadership we have seen at all levels of the service as we
planned to introduce this Government policy together with the continued support for vaccination as the most important defence against the virus.”
