The threat of dismissal for hundreds of unvaccinated NHS workers in Bristol and Weston could be lifted amid calls to scrap mandatory Covid-19 jabs.
Calls have been made to some 860 University Hospitals Bristol and Weston Trust frontline staff questioning their vaccination status ahead of the March 31 deadline to have both jabs.
But after the Royal College of Midwives warned of a “catastrophic impact” and the Royal College of GPs and Royal College of Nursing urged a delay to the deadline, a minister has strongly indicated the policy for health and care organisations could be reversed.
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Simon Clarke, the chief secretary to the Treasury, said Omicron’s lower severity did “open a space” for a rethink and a decision would be made “in the course of the next few days”.
UHBW Trust chief executive Robert Woolley told the council of governors on January 28 before that news broke: “A lot of leaders are expressing concern about the impact it will have on a workforce that is already severely stretched and carrying a huge number of vacancies.”
As of December the trust had 11,374 people on the payroll and had 846 vacancies.
To be double vaccinated by March 31, workers would need to have had their first jab by February 3.
“Those requirements are drastic in terms of the liabilities that are created for staff who have patient-facing roles but who choose not to get vaccinated,” said Mr Woolley.
“They will have to be redeployed out of their role, and if they can’t be redeployed they will be out of a job - that is just not negotiable.”
Chrissie Gardner, a Unite union representative, was concerned some low paid workers had been told they have to be vaccinated by the deadline “or you’re out of the job” and said there had been no education for them.
Mr Woolley said he was sorry if staff were being told they can “take it or leave it”, adding that the trust was trying to be as supportive as possible in the very short timescale.
“There are some staff in the NHS generally, not just in Bristol or Weston, who are genuinely uncertain about the vaccines and are looking for information about side effects and so on,” he said. “We’re doing our utmost to provide information about such things.
“There are some staff who genuinely believe it is their human right to decide for themselves what does and doesn't go into their body.
“Equally, there are others who do recognise that there is a professional responsibility that comes with working in the health and care system to minimise risks to the people that we’re caring for.
“I think we’re talking about a minority of staff and we are likely to see significant numbers coming forward for vaccination in the remaining days.”
Emma Wood, the trust’s director of people, said: “We’ve been phoning the over 800 people we think have no jab or one jab to ask them what their intention is and what their plan is so that we can risk assess whether or not we have some significant issues.
“At the moment the data is suggesting to us that most people either plan to have a jab or will have a jab and that many people that we have recorded as having no vaccine are either are international individuals that have a different vaccine which we have to verify or even live in Wales because our data doesn’t include our Welsh colleagues.
“We’re working very proactively to get through to understand people’s hesitancy to try to understand how many people simply will not have the inoculations.
“Staff who are in scope and do not wish to have their two vaccines will be dismissed - there is no alternative for us as a trust because that’s the new legislation.”
Ms Wood said the trust would see if the individuals’ roles could change or they could be moved to jobs that are out of scope.
But she added that staff would only be redeployed if there was a suitable vacant role, and they would not leave with redundancy payments if they can no longer do their jobs.
