UK: The Hospital's CEO Concedes That Mandatory Immunizations May Cause Them To Lose Employees.

 

The head of one of London's biggest hospitals has expressed concern about losing personnel as a result of stricter vaccination requirements.

Front-line NHS personnel in England will be required to get the Covid vaccine starting in April, or they will be transferred to another position.

Clive Kay, the chief executive of King's College Hospital, said it was his job to encourage employees to be vaccinated, yet 10% of his 14,000 employees were still unvaccinated.

Nadhim Zahawi, a government official, justified the program as "the correct thing to do."

NHS staff in England who have direct face-to-face contact with patients will be required by law to be vaccinated against Covid beginning in April.

A similar approach has already been implemented in England for social care workers, with care facilities claiming that it has exacerbated the staffing shortage. The NHS is already short of 93,000 personnel due to a serious staffing shortage.

Mr Kay was speaking after one of his own doctors raised the issue with Health Secretary Sajid Javid, stating he was "not happy" that he was facing dismissal because he had not had the vaccine.

The doctor, Steve James, an ICU consultant, stated that he thought he had antibodies after contracting Covid, and has since told the BBC that vaccination should be a personal choice.

Mr Kay, the hospital's CEO, refused to say whether he thought the new rule was fair, claiming that employees were "not forced" to get the vaccine, but rather "encouraged."

When pressed about the rules, he admitted that not getting vaccinated could result in people losing their jobs: "There's a chance they'll be redeployed if they don't get vaccinated." And if we can't find a way to redeploy them, the result will be that they will [lose their jobs]."

Mr Kay told the BBC's Sophie Raworth on Sunday Morning, "We would not force anybody to be vaccinated." "We must treat them with warmth and compassion, and we must give them every opportunity to express their concerns if they do not wish to receive the vaccine.

When asked how many front-line employees he would lose as a result of the legal change, Mr Kay said: "I am convinced that a number of employees have already chosen to be vaccinated. I'm not going to make any predictions or disclose any numbers at this point."

"My job is to worry about everything in connection to whether or not we have enough employees here to give care for patients securely," he said, adding that he was "of course" concerned about staffing.

In November, Mr Javid said that more than 93 percent of NHS frontline staff had received their first dose and 90 percent had received their entire vaccination. This is higher than the general population, which has received 90 percent of the first dose and 83 percent of both.

"My position is that we should not require vaccination," Dr. James said on the BBC's Broadcasting House programme on Sunday.

"Normally, you go through an informed consent procedure with the patient, where you balance the risks, advantages, and that person's own preference as a doctor."

Since speaking with Mr Javid, he has received letters from "hundreds of individuals" who have expressed gratitude for him speaking up about his feelings.

"A group of midwives has written to indicate that they believe 41 or 45 of the midwives in that unit will not get vaccinated. That means an entire hospital's midwifery staff will be leaving."

Each of the United Kingdom's four nations makes its own decision on the matter.

Scotland and Wales have not proposed making Covid vaccinations mandatory for NHS and care home workers, while Northern Ireland will hold a public consultation.