A last-minute delay to the Covid vaccine mandate for NHS staff merely kicks the problem down the road

Policy of mandatory Covid vaccinations for both health and care staff has been poorly thought through, writes Rebecca Thomas

All staff will be required to have had at least one jab by 3 February under the plan (Getty Images)

In the past two weeks, the Royal College of Midwives, Royal College of Nurses and Royal College of GPs have all called for the government to delay its deadline for all NHS staff to be vaccinated against Covid-19.

Under the incoming law, all staff will be required to have had one jab by 3 February – less than two weeks away – and two jabs by April.

The government is now considering a delay to the deadlines but senior NHS England sources suggested the move would simply be kicking the can down the road. The Independent has been told of proposals – previously been floated by ministers – that include delaying the deadline until June, but with an added booster jab requirement. Meanwhile,The Times has reported the government is expected to hold the line on its April deadline.

Senior NHS sources told The Independent ministers were still “pressing ahead” with the first deadline for unvaccinated staff to have their first jab, while no official suggestions of a delay appear to have been handed down to the NHS.

Putting off the deadline would give the NHS more time to have one-to-one conversations with staff and get its legal processes in place, as well as allowing staff to be moved around to avoid rota gaps during a tough winter period.

However, senior leaders say a delay is unlikely to significantly reduce numbers of unvaccinated staff, and if last summer is anything to go by, this June is unlikely to be an ideal time to lose staff, either.

There has only been a 0.2 percentage point improvement in the numbers vaccinated since December, and around 5.4 per cent of NHS staff are still unvaccinated. The estimate from the government’s impact assessment was that 4.9 per cent of the workforce would still be unvaccinated by the April deadline, and the feeling within the NHS is that scenario looks likely.

Sources suggest a delay of six months would only change that by a few percentage points, which would still result in tens of thousands of staff not being able to work in frontline roles.

It is also worth considering the government cannot take back the impact that its mandatory vaccine deadline had on care homes in November. The deadline for this sector was never shifted and reports that a delay is being considered for the NHS must be a slap in the face to social care.

Policy around mandatory Covid vaccinations for both health and care staff appears to have been poorly thought through – and a last-minute delay to the deadline only serves as further evidence of this.