Mixed response from North East NHS and care staff on Covid No Jab, No Job policy

NHS and Social Care staff based in the North East have told ITV News Tyne Tees they would have preferred to keep the personal choice status quo on Covid vaccinations, but some understand why the government has mandated it.

The Health Secretary announced in the House of Commons that he had "concluded that all those working in the NHS and social care will have to be vaccinated".

This means from Thursday all care home workers in the North East will have to be double jabbed to continue working in the sector or lose their jobs. NHS patient facing staff have until 1 April to get their second vaccination.

Former Stockton North MP, Dr Paul Williams, who works in the area as a GP, told ITV News: "I’d much rather us be persuading people to get a vaccine, but there are still probably 100,000 patient facing NHS staff that haven’t had a vaccine. I think the vaccine has been around now for 11 months. I think it’s about time those that weren’t vaccinated got the vaccine, so when it comes down to it, I think patient safety is the most important thing."

The regional director of the Royal College of Nursing, Paul Wood had a slightly different take on the decision, stating: "The vaccination is a really good thing, but mandating a vaccination really removes and element of personal choice, for whatever reason that might be, and I don’t think it really achieves the goal the government is setting out, which is to increase the uptake. There’s a real risk that mandating a vaccination only marginalises those that haven’t taken the vaccination."

Predictions suggest around 50,000 care workers may leave their jobs on Thursday as a result of the no jab, no job policy.

One care home group owner from Durham said he is losing one member of staff, but is worried for other care homes that will lose more.

Justin Russi of Hawthorns Lodge Ltd, said: "It will cause a crisis, because the pool that we go to in order to make sure we maintain the level of staffing will shrink and shrink dramatically. Rooms will be closed off, numbers in care homes will fall and some care homes will be forced to close, not because they’re not wanted. It’ s because simply they just don’t have the workforce to cover the job that they have to do."

For an industry that already has more than 100,000 vacancies to fill, Russi argued this highlights the need for more funding in the social care sector.

Acknowledging the government's plan to raise National Insurance to fund the NHS and social care, he said the funds are needed now to enhance care workers' pay. He said: "It’s all very well giving them job satisfaction, but you have to give them pay to go with that job satisfaction."

Some 11 per cent of care workers still need to be double jabbed and the Unison union is urging the government to rethink its strategy.

Unison Northern's regional secretary, Clare Williams, said: "What we’re saying to the government is you need to step back from this sort of arbitrary deadline that’s been imposed. The sector will go into meltdown if we lose more staff and what Union is being told is that this could be the final straw for many staff who are already feeling exhausted, are struggling with low pay."

We contacted the Department for Health & Social Care for a comment on care workers' pay, but it is yet to respond.