Minister will make Kovid vaccines mandatory for everyone NHS Employees in England since April, claimed TODAY.
A source close to the talks said the move was a “done deal” and could be unveiled on Thursday.
but the health secretary Sajid Javido Rumors there are still objections to the policy, with the insider describing him as ‘really divided’ – despite publicly saying he was leaning towards the mandate.
Health officials, however, have told MailOnline that ‘no final decision has been made’ and is unlikely to be announced until next week.
The government has been considering the move for months to protect the NHS this winter.
But critics say it is ‘neither necessary nor proportionate’, given that 92 per cent of NHS staff are already laid off.
And care owners have warned that mandatory vaccine mandates in their region have become meaningless, with just 30,000 coming forward after a legal requirement.
Care home workers will need to take two doses starting November 11 to keep their jobs.
But figures suggest some 60,000 workers have not received their shots in time, with unions warning that mass exodus may leave some homes ‘no longer able to operate’.
Some 100,000 NHS workers have not yet received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine, figures show. The graph above shows the percentage who received their first dose (blue line) and the percentage who received both doses (orange line).
A source involved in the discussion told i newspaper That the move to make jabs mandatory in the NHS was imminent.
He said: ‘It looked like a complete deal based on the document shown by the health department and our discussions with them.
He added, however: ‘But it looked like Sajid Javid had actually split on the decision and was going to see what happened in New York.’
“It’s all part of Javid’s “I’m not taking any crap from doctors” stance.
‘He fought with the GP’ [over remote consultations] They didn’t need it and now they can go to war with the wider health and care community.’
Mr Javid last month threatened to name and shame under-performing surgeries and send ‘hit squads’ to those who weren’t seeing enough people in person.
But the move sparked an ugly controversy with the GP, who said he had been ‘insulted’.
The source suggested the health secretary is now trying to soften his stance after taking the wrong step in healthcare for barely five months in the job.
Official documents shown to the eye warned that this winter the Covid and flu were going to put ‘substantial pressure’ on the NHS.
He said there was “unacceptable uncertainty” about whether non-vaccinated staff had passed the virus to patients in previous years.
NHS England’s national medical director Professor Stephen Powis is reportedly already telling senior health figures that an announcement is expected on Thursday.
But the Health Department refused to accept that timeline.
A spokesperson told MailOnline: “No final decision has been taken and we will respond at an appropriate time.”
‘It is never too late to accept this offer and we would urge all who are eligible to come forward in the winter months.’
Questions have been raised about whether this step is necessary in the NHS, as the figures are some 9. suggestion2 percent (1.34 million) of the workforce in England have already received their first dose.
And 89 percent of the workforce (1.3 million) have received both doses.
There are already over 100,000 vacancies in the NHS – including over 4,000 doctors and 18,000 nurses.
There are fears that the number will increase with the implementation of a ‘no when, no job’ policy as the NHS chief expects one of the toughest winters ever.
Mr Javid said he was leaning towards making vaccines mandatory for NHS staff last month.
But it appears he heeded calls by health chiefs to delay the policy until April, as there was a ‘very, very’ hard winter ahead.
Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers – which represents the trusts, publicly called for the delay earlier this week.
But he did not rail against mandatory vaccination, suggesting that health leaders backed the measure. He said most hospitals had already indicated their support for the policy.
The graph above shows the proportion of employees working in care homes for people over the age of 65 who received the first and second doses of the vaccine. This shows that when jabs were mandated, there was no sharp jump in offtake.
The map above shows five areas where more than one in five care home workers have not yet received two doses of the COVID vaccine
A consultation about making COVID – and flu – vaccinations mandatory for NHS staff concluded in late October.
But, he i newspaper Report Ministers are waiting to publish the results until after the COP26 summit.
Some groups today protested the policy being imposed on the NHS before winter.
Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, President of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, said: ‘We do not think that making the COVID vaccine mandatory for doctors is either necessary or proportionate.
‘So if it is true that the Department of Health is going ahead with mandatory vaccinations then we will be very careful.’
She continued: ‘While we think it is the professional responsibility of doctors, when we know that more than 92 percent of them have already done so, you have to ask why such a heavy-handed approach is being adopted. . Is. took.’
Unions have warned that some care homes face crippling next week when it is made mandatory for their workers to get two COVID jobs.
Statistics show that Manchester, Nottingham, Westminster and Birmingham are facing the biggest crisis, with almost one in five workers still to be double-pocketed.
Some homes in the southwest have already stopped receiving patients from hospitals, blocking wards’ beds.
Care home sources have called for a delay in the deadline, and said that making jabs mandatory has had only a ‘modest’ impact on offtake.
A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘We have taken action to introduce vaccination requirements into care homes and we have recently consulted to expand this to health and other social care services.
“No final decision has been taken and we will respond at an appropriate time.”
Vaccines are safe and effective and about 4 in 5 people in the UK already have both jabs to protect themselves from COVID.
‘It is never too late to accept this offer and we would urge all who are eligible to come forward in the winter months.’
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