Thousands of nursing home employees lose jobs as mandatory COVID-19 vaccine deadline passes | UK news

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Thousands of care home employees face losing their jobs today and being forced to leave the sector as the mandatory COVID-19 vaccination deadline passes.

From Thursday, all care home workers in England must have been stabbed twice, unless they are medically exempted.

Official NHS figures due this afternoon, as of November 7, are expected to show more than 50,000 current care staff not registered as having received two doses of the vaccine.

Of these, several thousand are understood to have self-certified as medically exempt or have applied for official evidence.

Photo: Mandatory vaccination extended to all frontline NHS staff

Of those who had not taken twice by November 7, it is understood that more than half had taken a single dose.

Home care providers can choose to redeploy employees into indirect roles – if available – or put them on paid or unpaid leave until they receive both doses.

On Tuesday, the health secretary expanded the scope of mandatory vaccination for all frontline NHS staff and those working in social care, and those workers must be hit twice by April.

One care group said providers are being implicated in disciplinary action over the government’s “scandalous” policy, which increases workforce stress.

The National Care Forum (NCF) said a number of its members estimate they will lose about 8% of staff by Thursday, after a quick survey.

The survey found that 58% administer disciplinary hearings and 40% administer requirements-related appeals, while 53% said they spent money on professional legal advice.

Members, on average, said that 3.5% of their employees have already left as a result of resignation or dismissal, and they estimate that 4.4% may leave.

The NCF said Social Welfare could not afford such a massive loss of employees given the “enormous” workforce pressures the sector was experiencing.

CEO, Vic Rayner, said care homes had been “unintentionally guinea pigs” throughout the policy, which one caregiver called a “chaos”.

A nursing home manager told Sky News she struggled reading “heartbreaking” resignation letters from one-sixth of her employees.

Niccii Gillett, who runs Elmfield House Residential Home in Woking, Surrey, said six of her 36 employees have quit over the requirement rather than face dismissal.

Gillette said her employees “firmly stated” in each resignation letter that they did not want to leave their jobs.

Photo: Nursing home manager Nessie Gillette said she lost a sixth of her staff because of the policy

She said, “The sad thing is that none of them wanted to leave. Reading their resignation letters was horrifying.”

“They are very grateful for the opportunities and the first opportunity we left, we gave them.

“It was a very touching era, and for days after that my residents were sad that they saw this person being one of them, and even a resident, they said ‘I wish you could come back, I don’t care she wasn’t vaccinated’.”

Another care worker, who lost his job over the decision, said he felt “betrayed and alienated”.

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2:35 UK ‘facing a tsunami due to unmet care needs’

Dave Kelly, 32, who worked at a home in the Northwest, said he was “extremely upset” to have been forced out now when he was working during the pandemic without PPE.

“We were allowed to operate on the front lines with little or no protection all the time, but as of tomorrow we are now an immediate danger?” He said.

The National Care Association said a vaccine is an essential part of controlling the virus, but that an unintended consequence of the mandatory policy would be “no staff, no care.”

Chief Executive Officer Nadera Ahmed said: “The NHS will struggle to get out of the acute sector and into safe environments where people can be supported at a critical time in their lives.

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“There is still plenty of time to bring the deadline in line with the NHS and support the sector for a fighting chance of getting through the winter months.

“It may avoid shutting down the basic family when we need it most as a nation.”

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