Covid-19 vaccination will become mandatory for NHS staff in England from next spring, reports suggest.
According to the Guardian, around 1.2 million NHS workers will be required to have the jab in order to keep their job from next April.
Health secretary Sajid Javid is understood to have put off introducing compulsory vaccination sooner in an attempt to avoid a mass exodus of staff in the lead up to winter, the health service's busiest time of year, the paper reports.
The Guardian said an official announcement from the Department of Health could come as soon as Thursday this week.
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Mr Javid said last week he is “leaning towards” making the jabs compulsory for staff in England, with around 100,000 NHS workers not fully vaccinated.
The reports come just days after one NHS leader urged the health secretary to delay mandating Covid-19 jabs for NHS workers until spring.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said that if the government was to press ahead, it should delay until April to ensure the NHS can get through the “very, very difficult winter”.
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He told BBC Breakfast: “If we lose very large numbers of unvaccinated staff, particularly over the winter period, then that also constitutes a risk to patient safety and quality of care.”
Mr Hopson continued: “We know – and the chief medical officer has said this really clearly – that we’ve got a very, very difficult winter coming up and we know the NHS is going to be absolutely at full stretch.
“So it makes sense to set the deadline once that winter period has passed.
“We know that January, February, often early March is very busy, so that’s why we’re saying today that we think an April 2022 deadline is a sensible time.”
The consultation on mandatory vaccines for NHS workers closed on October 22.
The move would mean the situation for NHS staff in England is broadly in line with the requirement for care home workers.
Plans for mandatory jabs for staff in care homes in England were announced in June, and the deadline for workers to have received both doses of vaccine is this month.
From November 11, anyone working or volunteering in a care home will need to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, unless exempt.
On social care, Mr Hopson said: “In mid June, the government announced it was going to be moving towards mandating staff vaccination, and the deadline they said was mid-November, so there was a five-month run-up.
“And what we’re saying in the NHS is we need that length of run-up as well.
“You just need to look at the problems that social care providers are currently reporting and saying: ‘look, we are really, really struggling at the moment in terms of staff potentially leaving just at the point when we need them’.
“And indeed some NHS staff are now having to help out, for example in Cornwall, are having to go and help out in the social care sector to ensure that we can discharge people from hospital.”
However, some leading doctors have said that any reduction of NHS staff due to vaccination requirements would be a “devastating” blow to the health service.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said the threat that staff could lose their jobs if they do not get a Covid-19 vaccine is “of grave concern”.
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA council chair, said: “The BMA fully supports the Covid vaccination rollout and, given the effectiveness of the vaccine, it’s important that every NHS worker is vaccinated, other than those who can’t for medical reasons.
“There is, however, an important distinction between believing every healthcare worker should be vaccinated and advocating for mandatory vaccinations; this comes with its own legal, ethical and practical implications that must be considered.
“The threat to staff who refuse the vaccine of losing their jobs is also of grave concern."
It said one of the main concerns it had about mandatory vaccination would be its impact on the workforce.
"Vaccination coverage among NHS workers is high – latest data shows that in several hospital trusts in England the number of staff who have had both vaccinations is in excess of 90%," the BMA said.
“However, even if a small number of staff were forced out of work because they are not vaccinated, this would have a big impact on a health service that’s already under immense pressure.
“With severe workforce shortages afflicting the NHS, and 93,000 unfilled vacancies, any reduction in healthcare workers could be devastating for patient services as we face a record backlog of care and winter pressures."
The BMA encouraged the government to "explore options for those who are unable to be vaccinated for medical reasons or may refuse, including, for example, remote working, possible redeployment, greater PPE protection and more regular testing".
It added that the government should produce an impact assessment to give an indication of how much the policy may affect staffing levels.
“It would be irresponsible to move forward with this plan without doing this at the very least," it said.
