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15
Sept 2021
350 Harrogate hospital staff not fully vaccinated against covid
About 350 frontline staff at Harrogate hospital have not been fully vaccinated against covid, it has been revealed, as a consultation on whether to make the jabs mandatory gets underway.
That figure represents just under 10% of the 3,598 frontline staff at the hospital and was revealed by Dr Jacqueline Andrews, executive medical director at the Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust.
She said the trust was urging all remaining staff to get doubled jabbed and that managers were speaking with those workers about their concerns.
Dr Andrews said:
Government plans are already in place to make it a legal requirement for all care home workers to be fully vaccinated, while implementing the same rules for frontline NHS staff is currently being considered in a consultation.
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Across North Yorkshire, around 430 care home workers are not fully vaccinated and health officials have insisted they are making progress on reducing this number.
The date from which it will become a legal requirement for all care home staff in England to be double jabbed, unless medically exempt, is November 11.
Concern over mandatory vaccines
The move has sparked concerns that making the jabs mandatory could lead to thousands of job losses, which would only worsen the current staffing shortages in both sectors.
And there are now new warnings that employers could face legal action if they sack staff because they have not been fully vaccinated.
Ben Kirkham, regional organiser for the GMB union, said mandatory vaccines could open the door to claims of unfair dismissal if employers sacked staff without offering them redeployment into roles where vaccines were not required.
He said:
'We must protect patients'
The consultation on mandatory vaccines for NHS staff is seeking views on the proposals and any impact on staffing and safety such as reducing staff sickness absence.
Staff, healthcare providers, patients and their families are all being urged to have their say, with a final decision expected this winter.
Launching the consultation last week, health secretary Sajid Javid said:
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