There are fears the policy could drive away workers at a time when the NHS is grappling with a huge staff shortage and coming under increased pressure.
Sources have suggested an April deadline has been set to prevent staff leaving during the winter wave.But he said the policy was justified as mandatory vaccines in the care sector had improved updake. He told MPs: ‘The take-up throughout the NHS in England is 93% of the first dose, 90% of two doses, and that does leave – the latest number I have – 103,000 people in the NHS, that work for the NHS, that are unvaccinated, so not even one jab.‘If we look at what has happened with social care – care homes – since that policy was announced, there was a significant fall in the equivalent number and I think we can certainly expect that here.
The number of people working in care homes who have not had at least one dose fell from 88,000 to just 32,000 at the start of last month, Mr Javid said. Of the consultation regarding making vaccines mandatory for NHS staff, he added: ‘I’ve carefully considered the responses and the evidence and I’ve concluded that the scales clearly tip to one side.The announcement comes after new figures show