Nursing and Care home staff in England will need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of keeping their jobs, the government has announced, and the stricture may also be extended to health workers.
Nursing home residents should be better protected from death and serious illness, following confirmation people working in care & nursing homes will need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
The new legislation means from October – subject to Parliamentary approval and a subsequent 16-week grace period – anyone working in a CQC-registered (Care & Nursing) home in England for residents requiring nursing or personal care must have 2 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine unless they have a medical exemption.
It will apply to all workers employed directly by the care home or care home provider (on a full-time or part-time basis), those employed by an agency and deployed by the care home, and volunteers deployed in the care home. It is estimated that more than 1.2 million social care workers (78%) in England have now taken up the vaccination – an important step in protecting themselves, their loved ones, and the people they care for from becoming seriously ill or dying from COVID-19.
People going into care homes to provide other services to residents, such as hairdressers, maintenance workers and other stakeholders, will also have to follow the new regulations, unless they have a medical exemption. Despite all these measures, there will be no obligation on visiting friends and family to comply.
Health department have become increasingly concerned at coronavirus vaccine take-up rates in care homes, which is believed to put some of the country’s most vulnerable people at additional risk of contracting the disease. It is estimated that about 80 per cent of care workers have had at least one jab but take-up has been lower in the capital, where staff tend to be younger.
The government is expected to launch a further public consultation in due course on whether to make COVID-19 and flu vaccination a condition of deployment in health and care settings.
This is a complex issue and the government is looking for a wide range of perspectives from across the health and care sector about whether this should be introduced and how it could be implemented.