Concern over low vaccine uptake among minority NHS staff groups

Black and minority NHS staff are not getting vaccinated as fast as white colleagues

NHS bosses are concerned at the lower uptake of the Covid vaccines among black and minority ethnic staff (AP/Andre Penner)

Fewer black and minority ethnic NHS staff are coming forward to get vaccinated against coronavirus, sparking fears for the NHS workforce most at risk from the virus.

At some hospitals only a quarter of black members of staff have so far had the vaccine compared to more than half of white staff.

NHS bosses have launched a nationwide effort to try and encourage more ethnic minority staff to get vaccinated with hospitals risk assessing staff to identify those most vulnerable to the vaccine to try and prioritise them.  

Concern over lack of vaccinations among minority ethnic groups is growing, with vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi telling the London Assembly on Wednesday that he feared Covid could spread through unvaccinated communities “like wildfire” because of a certain reluctance to have the jab.

At Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust in London last week, only 24 per cent of black staff had been vaccinated compared with 52 per cent Asian staff and 60 per cent of white staff.

Just over half of all staff had been vaccinated by the end of January at the Royal Free Trust, in north London.

An internal summary, shared with The Independent, showed that only 25 per cent of black staff there had been vaccinated, the lowest for all ethnic groups.

Across the trust, 62 per cent of white staff had been vaccinated by the end of January.  

During a staff meeting Deborah Sanders, chief executive at Barnet Hospital told staff: “We've vaccinated roughly about 50 per cent of all our staff. We have got really good breakdowns by department, by staff group, by ethnicity, by age, and we can see there is some differences.

“We can see at the moment more white staff have had the vaccination than our Bame staff. We really want to encourage all staff to have the vaccine.

“The uptake among our doctors has been really, really good. Our nursing staff, we need more of you to have the vaccine, you’re on the frontline with patients.”

Similar figures have been reported by Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation Trust where trust bosses were told last week that only a quarter of black staff had been vaccinated.

Director of workforce, Daniel Waldron, told the trust board: “Black-African and black-Caribbean staff are showing more vaccine hesitancy. The numbers are quite dramatically different. Filipino staff are actually the lowest group [in terms of uptake].”

Vaccine hesitancy among minority groups has been identified by polling carried out by the Royal Society for Public Health, which found only 57 per cent people from ethnic minority backgrounds were likely to get vaccinated, despite their increased risk from the virus.

One obstacle for ethnic minority NHS staff may also involve their ability to get vaccinated at short notice. The majority of ethnic minority staff work on more frontline, less senior roles, meaning some may have missed email invitations to receive the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine.

With the rollout of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab, some vaccines will be taken to ward areas to inoculate staff in situ.

Habib Naqvi, director of the NHS Race and Health Observatory, told The Independent: “We are concerned at growing anecdotal evidence of low uptake of the vaccine amongst black, minority ethnic staff.  Given the disproportionate impact on NHS frontline and healthcare staff, who represent up to a fifth of the NHS workforce, it is vital that informed decisions, based on fact, are made when the vaccine is offered.

“Health and social care staff have been rightly prioritised for the vaccine, and we want them to take the first opportunity to protect themselves, patients and the wider community.”

The Race and Health Observatory is working with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to see how vaccine hesitancy can be tackled.

Danny Mortimer, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents over 500 healthcare organisations said its members were “seeing less take-up of the vaccine from Bame colleagues than white colleagues. It is something NHS organisations are very aware of.”

He added: “It is absolutely something that trusts and NHS England are taking really seriously, to make sure that all staff can access the vaccine and can protect themselves and their colleagues, their patients and their families.”

A spokesperson for the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust told The Independent: “While ultimately the responsibility sits with individuals to accept the vaccination invitation, we are strongly advising colleagues to get the vaccine and are having regular discussions with our staff equality, diversity and inclusion networks, as well as with community leaders.

“A number of colleagues from black, Asian and minority ethnic groups are actively promoting the vaccine to colleagues by dispelling some of the myths circulating on social media while talking about their positive experiences of taking the vaccine.”

The Royal Free Trust said more than 5,300 staff had been vaccinated.

NHS England is collecting data on the vaccine programme including the ethnicity of staff but declined to provide a nationwide picture of take up among NHS staff groups.

It said it had specifically tailored information to meet the needs of ethnic minority groups to tackle their concerns over the vaccine and was encouraging staff to share their positive experiences of the vaccine.

An spokesperson said: “All NHS staff are being encouraged to accept the offer of Covid vaccination and so far there has been strong uptake of the vaccine, just as there has been from patients in the other priority groups.

“While ultimately the responsibility sits with individuals to accept the vaccination invitation, local employers will also be collecting uptake information to guide their promotional information.”