Nearly half of care home staff won’t take the coronavirus vaccine, with bosses desperately calling on ministers to make jabs compulsory among healthcare workers.
Nadra Ahmed, chairman of the National Care Association, said as many as 40% of carers could choose not to take up the option as it is rolled out over the coming days.
One care home owner claimed if they got to such a situation, they would feel obliged to disclose the low take-up not only to family members but also the local authority, adding it wasn’t clear who would be liable if someone were to fall ill.
As a result, there are growing calls to make it a requirement for such workers to take the jab in a bid to win the war on Covid-19.
Ms Ahmed told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘We know that between 50-60%, depending on individual services, the staff are actually saying they will definitely have the vaccine and are very keen.
‘We understand between about 17-20% of staff in services are saying they definitely won’t have it, and then you have the rest who are waiting to see.
‘So we are looking at potentially 40% who decide not to have it.’
Put to her that this was a ‘huge’ number of care workers, Ms Ahmed replied: ‘It certainly is, however I do think people will start to change their minds as the vaccine becomes more readily available and they see colleagues having it.
‘I think the uncertainty rests somewhere around fear but then also there are people with conditions who are being advised not to have it, so the picture is a little bit hazy at the moment but we are doing all we can.
‘It’s stunning because they’ve been working and seeing the direct results of the impact of this virus.
‘We’ve tried to get them to have the flu jab, for instance, and the take-up on that isn’t very good.
‘In the NHS they’re incentivised to have which seems quite perverse in some ways.
‘But it’s not in their contract that they have to have these vaccines, it’s an optional part of life.’
However, a care home boss, who wanted to remain anonymous, told the programme of their fears of the impact if such a large number of staff refuse to take the jab.
They said: ‘If we get to a situation where, say, half of my staff aren’t vaccinated then I think we’d have to disclose that, not just to family members, but the local authority.
‘I don’t know why they can force people to stay in their homes or not go to the pubs but they can’t force them to do the right thing which is to take the vaccine.