Some Harrogate district care homes have said making covid vaccines compulsory for care home staff will make recruiting new staff even harder.
Recruitment in the care sector is “at crisis point” and some of those working in the field say the government’s decision, that comes into play today, has put care home staff in an unfair position.
Klara Spatenkova, home manager at the Manor House in Knaresborough, said out of 65 members of staff she’d lost four because of the new rule:
“At first, I felt like a lot of it didn’t make sense. We all have to be vaccinated yet all the visitors don’t. Just because of their personal views people are leaving jobs they have worked in for years.
“Out of 65 staff, four, is nowhere near as bad as other homes. We will always do our best to take care of our residents and give them the best care. That hasn’t changed it’s just been hard, it has definitely impacted recruitment too.”
The director of a home care group covering the Harrogate district said although the ruling doesn’t affect his staff yet he agrees recruitment will get harder.
Matthew Nutting works for Radfield Home Care and said:
“We are expecting the rule to affect domestic care staff by the new year. The recruitment challenge we face now is the worst I’ve seen in 15 years.
I think the new ruling is more destructive than covid itself because it reduces our pool of potential employees even further. It’s already reduced because of Brexit, covid but this will make it much worse.
“We need a dedicated action plan from the government to help.”
“Unfair” to only affect care home staff
But other homes said the impact has been minimal. Tracey Holroyd, chair of care home group Warmest Welcome which operates eight homes including the Crest in Harrogate and Westfield House in Killinghall, has only lost two staff members:
“I think a lot of it is down to geographical areas, we haven’t faired too badly but I know others have lost more staff. I don’t think it has had a huge impact on recruitment for us it’s just a bit unfair its not the same across the health service.”
Health Secretary, Sajod Javid, has confirmed this week that covid vaccines will become compulsory for all NHS workers. He said it is likely to be enforced by April.
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Barchester runs Thistle Hill and Boroughbridge Manor care homes. A statement from the group said the new ruling won’t impact these homes as those who refused the vaccine left months ago:
“Months ago we took the decision that staff working in a Barchester care home must be vaccinated. As a result we are well-prepared ahead of the deadline and we have seen strong uptake and positive engagement with the covid-19 vaccination.
The deadline tomorrow will not impact our homes locally as any employees that refused the vaccine left months ago and no one has been hired without being vaccinated or medically exempt.”
