A Liverpool MP and a senior doctor working at one of the city's hospitals are at odds over the situation surrounding covid vaccines and NHS staff.
The government has performed a dramatic u-turn on its intention to make vaccines compulsory for NHS staff and is currently consulting on its plan to scrap the policy for health and social care workers.
It had been a policy that NHS workers would need to be vaccinated by April or face losing their jobs, but last week Health Secretary Sajid Javid said he believes it is 'no longer proportionate' to require vaccination as a condition of deployment.
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He said it remained a 'professional duty' for those working in health and social care to get jabbed.
News of a government u-turn on mandatory jabs for health workers was welcomed by Liverpool Wavertree MP Paula Barker, who has been a vocal opponent of the policy.
Last week she tweeted: "Now that the Government are signalling a u-turn on mandatory vaccinations for NHS workers, they should urgently do the same for care workers, paving the way for those sacked to be reinstated with full restoration of their entitlements.
"Anything less would be a travesty."
She added: "The Government have held this threat over NHS staff during the most difficult of times. Alongside myself and a small number of MPs, a host of trade unions and professional bodies said they were wrong. Now they admit it."
While the government has changed course on the mandate, not everyone agrees it should go.
A senior NHS doctor, who has worked through the pandemic and is also a Labour Party member in Ms Barker's constituency, said he disagrees with his MPs stance.
Dr Richard Wenstone is a consultant intensivist who has worked in the ICU at the Royal Liverpool Hospital throughout the covid crisis.
He said: "I'm in favour of compulsory vaccination.
"It seems to me that all healthcare workers have a duty of care to their patients and that includes doing everything possible to prevent passing on an infection to them.
"The same also applies to doing everything possible to avoid passing on an infection to one's colleagues.
"The vast majority of heath obviously are vaccinated presumably because they do want to protect themselves, their families, their patients and their colleagues. I disagree with my MP's view on this."
Chief Medical Officer Sir Chris Whitty has written an open letter to NHS medics to tell them they have a 'professional responsibility' to get vaccinated against Covid.
He said: "Questions of professional responsibility and legal mandation are separate.
"Mandation is rightly for Ministers and Parliament. The professional responsibility, which is for the professions, predated discussion of mandation and is widely agreed by professional bodies, colleges, regulators and others.
"The public reasonably expect it of those who care for them or their vulnerable relatives because it is one of the simplest things that we, as healthcare workers, can do to protect patients."
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