Covid vaccinations to be made compulsory for care home staff

I wonder how many people will leave their jobs because they don't want the vaccine. There is already a staff shortage.
This job needs to be treated with the respect and renumeration that it deserves in order to attract applicants.

There is already a London plumbing firm (Pimlico Plumbing), who have instigated a no jab - no job policy.

I am just uncomfortable with the fact that it could become the norm in many workplaces.

Ilovecheese

I wonder how many people will leave their jobs because they don't want the vaccine. There is already a staff shortage.
This job needs to be treated with the respect and renumeration that it deserves in order to attract applicants.

This job needs to be treated with the respect and renumeration that it deserves in order to attract applicants.

That's what it needs from every angle.

Agree Ilovecheese

PippaZ

Biscuitmuncher

It's a slippery slope, isn't it, forcing people to have a vaccine?

You are not forcing people to have a vaccine though, are you? You are saying that the job requires you to be vaccinated.

If I saw a job advertised that required heavy lifting I could not and would not be able to do it. No one would suggest I was being forced into heavy lifting. Similarly if a job requires a qualification you don't have you would not say you are being forced to get that qualification.

Well said, PippaZ

Lots of jobs have medical requirements, including requirements to take any medications prescribed to you, including, at the simplest having to meet certain eyesight requirements to drive, this includes having to wear glasses/contact lens to meet these standards.

Lorry drives also have to meet stringent health requirements. If you go offshore you need to produce a certificate of dental fitness, showing that you have been to a dentist and had any work required done. Saying you have an objection or phobia to going to the dentist and having treatment, won't cut it. Either you get the certificateand have the treatment or you do not go offshore.

Requiring that you have the COVID and I would include flu vaccines if you want to work in a care home seems to me entirely reasonable. If you do not want them, then work elsewhere.

Tell me biscuitmuncher If you were frail and in care or someone very dear to you was old and frail and in care, would you be happy to know that several of the carers looking after you had not been vaccinated against COVID and could give you the disease or your loved one a disease that has a high chance of proving fatal?

Please do not duck this question, the way most vaccine denier/doubters do. Prove you are not another of the gutless womders.

Hear hear Monica.

I’d like to buscuitmunchers’s reasons for objecting to the vaccination I really would.

Also, a lot of anti-vaxxers, ( I know one) has had the vaccine now because they want to go abroad on holiday. It seems they bang on about their body, their choice and needing to have body autonomy but if they can't get a holiday abroad then all of a sudden it's 'bring it on"!

Like I said above...I don't know what the answer is here.

But I think we should remember that people who cannot have the vaccine for medical reasons are I believe exempt from this requirement, so its not a case of keeping all unvaccinated people out of care homes.

Also, the vast majority of care home residents have been vaccinated themselves.

It's not the case now, but when I started teaching it was necessary for new teachers to have had a TB vaccination and/or chest X-ray. You weren't even allowed to start training without it.

“ Tell me biscuitmuncher If you were frail and in care or someone very dear to you was old and frail and in care, would you be happy to know that several of the carers looking after you had not been vaccinated against COVID and could give you the disease or your loved one a disease that has a high chance of proving fatal?

Please do not duck this question, the way most vaccine denier/doubters do. Prove you are not another of the gutless womders.”

Not holding my breath

i think a good argument could be made for requiring all school children in state schools, to have all the recommended infant vaccinations.
if people object, let them fund their own schools.
why should the majority, who follow medical advice, have their children exposed to possible infection from others whose parents are non-compliant.
tail wagging dog.

growstuff

It's not the case now, but when I started teaching it was necessary for new teachers to have had a TB vaccination and/or chest X-ray. You weren't even allowed to start training without it.

Me too! I had to go to County Hall for it and was horrified when I realised I would have to strip down to my bra - as I wasn’t wearing one!

Surely it is the right of every care home resident to refuse care from an unvaccinated person?

Surely it is then the right of every member of staff to refuse to care for a person who is unvaccinated.

It should be compulsory unless you have a doctors certificate stating why it is medically not advisable that you are vaccinated.

A few years ago I used to volunteer at an wildlife rescue centre. There were certain areas we were not allowed access to unless we'd be inoculated against rabies because there MAY be an injured bat receiving treatment. They usually had just a couple of bats per year, if that, and its far harder to get rabies than covid, but we all happily complied because it was a requirement of the job.

Caring for vulnerable people cannot be done at a safe distance. No jab, no job.

Exactly Galaxy.
If the staff have to be vaccinated then surely the residents should be... and the visitors.
And how often?

This is why it's a slippery slope.

At present I think only surgeons have to be vaccinated against hepatitis B - for others (such as doctors and nurses) it may be recommended but isn't compulsory.
I'm prepared to be wrong here - but don't think I am.

The only nearly-compulsory medication in this country appears to be fluoride which isn't everywhere yet.
I suppose you could avoid it if you wanted to by buying bottled water (which might have the "other" fluoride in of course).

I’d like to hear some of the conversations going on ( behind closed doors ?) Re Insurance companies.

I fully support this decision. I don't really see what all the fuss is about. Either you have the vaccine and continue to work in the care sector or you refuse and get a job elsewhere. As previous posters have stated it's commonplace for health care staff to be vaccinated for other diseases, so why is this any different?

In the US, they have been offering 'inducements' to be vaccinated. Would our Prime Minister consider that? I wouldn't put it past him!

Under ordinary circumstances I would defend those who are anti vaccine. However these are not ordinary circumstances, we are in the middle of a global pandemic!!!!!
If health care workers refuse the vaccine then they must look for work elsewhere. Only those who are deemed exempt by a medical professional should be excused. Never thought I would hold this view but this but vaccination is so important. I would like to see it offered to all children too. This virus is mutating as we all know and is still with us and likely to remain so. I have surprised myself with how strongly I feel about this.

I'm sorry to repeat myself but I'm going to anyway.

If people who are medically exempt from the vaccine are allowed to look after care home residents, then why is it such a big deal that other people who are not vaccinated will be able to look after care home residents?

The medically exempt could still catch COVID; they could still pass it on to the residents. Should these people also be required to find another job?

Galaxy

Surely it is then the right of every member of staff to refuse to care for a person who is unvaccinated.

Not necessarily. Obviously, all who can be vaccinated should be encouraged to do so but there may be some who can't be. It is far easier for a member of staff to don PPE to protect the resident than it would be for a resident to do so to protect the member of staff. It may mean the hygiene guidelines have to be followed more closely for such members of the community but I am sure, if we deal with all the people involved as human beings, a way can be found.

Using the example of teachers' needing to be TB free, it wasn't a requirement for pupils to have had a chest X ray, so there's a precedent. I guess the point is that teachers/care workers are providing a service, which should be exemplary.

Alegrias1 I agree with your post.

MerylStreep also raised a good point regarding insurance, many people have what is known as Critical Health Insurance, could be tricky if you had declined the vaccination and caught Covid with ongoing critical conditions? Would the insurer have the right to refuse to pay-out?