Covid vaccinations to be made compulsory for care home staff

This is a very difficult moral question I feel, balancing our rights as citizens not to have medical treatment that we do not wish to have, and the rights of those being treated by carers. As I understand it, many occupations have medical requirements such as eye tests, fitness, hearing, etc, so I have come to the conclusion that the rights of the clients and care home owners to have staff who are compliant and safe over rides the right to refuse vaccination.

A local care home near me had 43 residents last year. It was a small well run home and the residents were 'like family' to the staff. The home took all precautions, extra cleaners etc and all was fine was the first 8 months of the pandemic. Then on december 6th, during the morning covid testing one nurse tested positive for covid. 3 days later 33 of the residents had the disease, within 3 weeks 14 of them had died. It was absolutely devasting for the families and staff. In addition 54 of the 68 employees tested positive so the home was run on a skeleton staff. That is was all inadvertantly caused by one nurse with covid. I know the vaccine wasn't available then and residents and most staff are vaccinated now but all care home workers really must be vaccinated.

I think one of my rights as a citizen is not to have my elderly relatives (or myself) put at risk by people who are supposed to be caring for them. I would have thought it was a given that any one working in medicine or the care sector should have all necessary vaccinations.

I do not think medically exempt people should be allowed to work in care homes. For care homes, in fact for all care and health facilities, it should be vaccinated staff only.

We tie ourselves in knots over the the 'poor things, it is not their fault, they are being discriminated against' to ludicrous extents these days. Anyone working in a care or health facility should be vaccinated against COVID and flu. End of.

DH was in hospital just before Christmas, heart attack and bypass surgery, while he was there he picked up a hospital based infection. It was probably while he was in theatre itself as the centre of infection was the incision and the lung that was deflated during surgery. It was a fairly rare infection but it required 3 more operations and his survival was not guaranteed.

These things can happen, even in world class cardiac units with the highest of standards, but to actually have people working there who are not vaccinated against quite serious diseases and who can pass them round and kill patients,with no one allowed to stop them, defies belief.

What matters most the self determination of the health staff on whether to have a vaccine or not or the lives of patients, who have gone into hospital, generally, to be cured of one illness, only to be killed another introduced into the hospital by those meant to be healing them.

To say that all the residents will be vaccinated is a cop out. If vaccination is compulsory for those in care facilities then it should be for carers/nurses/doctors too. Remenber the medically exempt are probably more likely to be vulnerable and in care homes or hospitals because of those vulerabilities. so need to be protected.

I would be very surprised if there are many (any) medically exempt people who are physically fit enough to do care work. People still have the choice to be vaccinated or not....but as we know all choices have consequences.

Are you saying that residents must be vaccinated as well. Have I missed that. Any care home that insists on that is not one I would want my relatives in.

I am working with one at the moment green lady, in her forties.

Doodledog

I've heard of people getting discretionary sick pay, which I can only imagine being horribly divisive and causing more problems than it solves, but I think it is legal.

As for the vaccine being compulsory for care workers, I have posted before about when my son was born and we had a very distressing experience because a member of staff was not vaccinated. My son was briefly in SCU, as his birth was very difficult, and one of the SHOs had lied about having had the TB vaccination. The doctor was from abroad, and had contracted TB before coming to the UK. My son, along with all the other babies who had been in the SCU were recalled to hospital for X rays, blood tests and prophylactic medicine. He was just days old, and it was very distressing.

I would not wish that on anyone, or on their parents or children. It really has made me hardline when it comes to vaccines, which works against my natural 'live and let live' outlook.

In the NHS, you cannot have "discretionary sick pay" What you get is "special circumstances paid leave"

Seems to me that working in a care home is pretty much minimum wage work and now they're being forced to have vaccines they dont want. No ones going to want to work in these places. What worries me is where does all this end. The government has done such a job on terrifying people your all willing to accept anything. Wake up for pities sake

Can anyone answer this - if the vaccine protects the vulnerable/elderly residents in care homes, why do the staff need to have it? The staff, who work 12 hour shifts, wiping and washing people, caring for the dementia sufferers, some of whom are aggressive, all for often Minimum Wage.

Grannygravy13 The man who owns Pimlico Plumbing has the right to choose who to employ, but he went further by saying that unvaccinated people should not be allowed in shops, etc., and they shouldn't be allowed out on the streets at all! The man is a moron.

Hes just after publicity.

PinkCakes those who are immune compromised have the highest chance of catching the virus even after vaccine, because it is less effective for them. Very sick people in nursing homes are therefore still vulnerable after vaccine.

Biscuitmuncher I agree. Unfortunately, many people have listened to the scaremongering in the media, believed this government, and fallen for it all. For a virus with a 99% RECOVERY rate.

I've had two vaccinations for covid 19 and my daughter who has a severe and complex disability lives in a supported living home with one other resident. I have to take a test 30 minutes before I enter her home, every time and every day I want or need to go there. So I'd expect her carers and support staff to have to do the same as I do, her Mum

sorry to be quite so specific but I think the chatter on here is a bit idealistic and you need to look at what is actually happening anyway

PinkCakes people have really fell for the brainwashing and the fear.

Carers (in homes and in the community) have to wear masks, aprons, and gloves, some even wear visors AS WELL. Where exactly is the risk of passing anything on?

PinkCakes

Biscuitmuncher I agree. Unfortunately, many people have listened to the scaremongering in the media, believed this government, and fallen for it all. For a virus with a 99% RECOVERY rate.

What is the motive for the media and the government to want to trick us into getting vaccinated?

Biscuitmuncher It is frightening to see. I really do worry about this terror some people seem to have. A friend of mine still wipes her groceries, refuses to have visitors in her home, and doesn't go anywhere without a mas. At aqua aerobics recently, one woman wore her mask in the water!

I think because issues like this can have repercussions that nobody thought about. What if residents are refusing the vaccine, what then? I have seen bad practice in care services which were often about not respecting the rights of residents, as I am sure you have, there is something about this that makes me uneasy.

Care staff wear masks, aprons and gloves if it is written into a risk assessment and that is generally only whilst doing personal care

PinkCakes

Biscuitmuncher I agree. Unfortunately, many people have listened to the scaremongering in the media, believed this government, and fallen for it all. For a virus with a 99% RECOVERY rate.

As opposed to those who get their information from facebook/youtube/their sister/their neighbour/their dog and choose to believe that ???

Sorry that response was to Janejudge, I am not joining in the conspiracy stuff

Doodledog You've hears "Build back better"? All world leaders are saying it. It's to do with Agenda 21. Google it. Johnson himself gave a speech recently, in which he said he hoped every person in the WORLD will be vaccinated by the end of next year.