THE BRITISH government is “absolutely thinking about” making the Covid-19 jab compulsory for healthcare workers to stop the spread of coronavirus in hospitals, vaccine deployment minister Nadhim Zahawi said on Sunday (30).
"It would be incumbent on any responsible government to have the debate, to do the thinking as to how we go about protecting the most vulnerable by making sure that those who look after them are vaccinated,” Zahawi told Sky News, noting that all surgeons get vaccinated for Hepatitis B.
Zahawi’s statement comes days after the government finished a consultation on making the jab compulsory for care homes staff. Final plans to oblige care home workers to be vaccinated have already been discussed for months and maybe approved this week.
NHS figures show about 88 per cent of healthcare workers have had at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.
Zahawi’s idea of compulsory jabs for NHS workers is raising concerns among experts who are pointing out that number of unvaccinated NHS staff is already "very small and decreasing" and the way ahead is to understand people's concerns and to "address those concerns.”
"All the concerns can be met if you have that quality of conversation," Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said.
A senior Labour frontbencher also pointed out that "threatening" NHS staff would be less effective than working with those who had doubts about the jab.
"Given we have got a recruitment crisis in parts of the NHS, I think it's far more important we try and work with staff rather than against them,” shadow Commons leader Thangam Debbonaire said. “Threatening staff, I don't think, is a good idea.”
The proposal to make Covid-19 vaccines compulsory for NHS staff was discussed in March as well. According to media reports, about 200,000 NHS and care employees had refused the offer of the Covid-19 vaccine at the time.
Mark Easton
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