Mandatory Covid jabs for NHS and care staff will be axed, Health Secretary Sajid Javid has confirmed.
The rule was set to be enforced from April, which meant if staff hadn't had their first dose by February 3, they would not be double vaccinated in time.
The '11th hour' u-turn comes amid fears that the need for healthcare workers to have a jab or potentially face the sack would have lead to a 'major staffing crisis.'
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Previously, front line workers in the sector had been told that they needed to have two vaccinations against Covid-19 by April.
However on Monday, January 31, Health Secretary Sajid Javid told the House of Commons he believed it is “no longer proportionate” to require the vaccination as a condition of deployment under law.
He said it is only right to review the policy, given that the Delta variant, dominant at the time the policy was announced in November, has now been replaced by the less severe Omicron.
This, combined with greater population protection from vaccines, means it is “not only right but responsible to revisit the balance of risks and opportunities that guided our original decision last year”, he said.
But the news has allegedly caused "frustration" among NHS health leaders, as their teams raced to meet the deadline in a bid to save their jobs.
Announcing a consultation, he told the House of Commons: “Subject to the responses and the will of this house, the Government will revoke the regulations.
“I have always been clear that our rules must remain proportionate and balanced, and of course, should we see another dramatic change in the virus, it would be only responsible to review this policy again.”
Ministers had been facing pressure to put back the requirement for staff in England to be double jabbed by April, amid fears it could lead to a major staffing crisis.
Mr Javid previously said everyone working in health and social care had a professional duty to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
He asked the NHS to review its policies on hiring new staff and deploying current staff, taking into account their vaccination status.
The chief executives of the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, Matthew Taylor and Chris Hopson, said NHS leaders are now “frustrated” at the 11th-hour policy change as they and their teams raced to meet the February 3 deadline for first doses.
In a joint statement they said: “They recognise the reasons the Government has given for the changes, the risk to services and the different risk from Omicron compared to previous variants.
“But there will be concern at what this means for wider messaging about the importance of vaccination for the population as a whole.”
The pair also said the U-turn will cause similar frustration for the care home sector “given the disruption to service delivery that resulted from loss of staff last November”.
The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) welcomed the Government’s suspension, but warned it would come at a further cost of broken trust among midwives and maternity support workers (MSWs).
The RCM said that although it "always advocated strongly" for members to take up the Covid vaccine, it opposed the Government's policy to make it mandatory.
Earlier this month, the RCM along with other health unions had called for a delay to the policy over staffing shortages fears.
Jon Skewes, Executive Director for External Relations at the RCM, said: “Mandatory COVID vaccination was always a wrongheaded policy and it’s disappointing that it’s taken the Government until the eleventh hour to put the brakes on.
"While we welcome today’s decision to go out again to consultation, it will do nothing to undo the further damage to trust in this Government among NHS staff, including midwives and maternity support workers (MSWs).
“I fear that some midwives, MSWs and other staff may already have left because of this policy. We need to see action to encourage their return to the NHS as quickly as possible.
“Now this welcome decision has been made we need to focus on encouraging unvaccinated staff to have the jab through support, discussion and engagement; the methods we and others have advocated from the start.
"Investing in maternity services needs to go beyond supporting existing staff to get the jab, though. We need to see the real terms investment that has been sadly lacking for far too long. From pay to premises, this investment is long overdue.”
Also responding to the announcement made today by Health Secretary Sajid Javid, the General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) Frances O’Grady said the U-turn was "inevitable at the eleventh-hour" due to the staff shortages within the NHS.
He said: “NHS staff unions warned government that mandatory vaccination was the wrong approach.
"This eleventh-hour U-turn became inevitable because of the NHS staffing crisis. Ministers should have listened to staff and unions sooner.
“The government must now do more to address staff shortages in the NHS, starting with a decent pay rise.
“Trade unions encourage every worker to get vaccinated and boosted against coronavirus. We urge all employers to make sure their staff can take paid time-off to get vaccinated.”
