Mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for healthcare staff are a controversial topic. As I write this, government ministers are meeting to decide whether to scrap the plan for mandatory vaccinations in healthcare workers (BBC News, 2022). The original plan was that from April, frontline NHS staff in England will need to be vaccinated or be redeployed in non-patient facing roles if possible. If they cannot be redeployed, they will likely lose their jobs.
The vast majority of those working in health and social care are double vaccinated, but there is a small, albeit significant, number who are not. Current estimates suggest around 77 000 people in the NHS have not yet been vaccinated. There are many reasons why some people are vaccine hesitant, ranging from concerns around the safety of the vaccine and side effects to beliefs that COVID-19 will be a mild illness for their demographic. Social media has played a large role in fuelling vaccine hesitancy, with scaremongering around fertility particularly affecting uptake in younger women. Encouraging people to get vaccinated and listening to concerns is generally seen as the best way to improve vaccination uptake, with many saying mandatory vaccination is counter-productive.
The arguments for mandatory vaccination include the idea that NHS staff have a duty of care to protect their patients, the precedent that has been set after mandatory vaccination was implemented for those working in the care sector, and the fact that certain vaccines are already mandatory for people working in healthcare, for example vaccination against hepatitis B.
Since the mandatory vaccination plan was initially conceived, the landscape has changed significantly, which is why the policy is under review. The omicron variant has turned out to cause milder illness, and the vaccine has showed reduced protection against the variant, although the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA, 2022) has published research showing that boosters significantly reduce the risk of death with omicron, as well as substantially reducing hospitalisation.
A number of bodies, including the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), have called for delays to the mandatory vaccination deadline. They cite concerns around workforce pressures. Martin Marshall, chair of the RCGP, said: ‘We simply can't afford to lose highly-trained staff in general practice when we need as many as possible delivering patient care.’
Pat Cullen, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, shared the same concerns: ‘We're calling on the government to recognise this risk and delay a move which, by its own calculations, looks set to backfire. To dismiss valued nursing staff during this crisis would be an act of self-sabotage.’
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