A Government advisor and Liverpool University academic has said healthcare workers who refuse to get vaccinated against Covid should be prevented from treating patients.
Professor Calum Semple, who is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), told the BBC’s Today Show he “passionately believes” all NHS workers should have to get the vaccine as a condition of their contract of employment.
Speaking about the issue, Professor Semple said: “I do passionately believe people working in health and social care should be vaccinated.
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"I may be an outlier on this, but I do see the effects on the frontline of hospital transmission and the devastating effect it has on patients that are immunocompromised.”
All care workers across England will be required to have received both vaccines by October unless they are medically exempt.
The government is currently discussing whether to extend this plan to all NHS workers too, something which Professor Semple is initially opposed to.
The former World Health Organisation member said: “I think we need to give our healthcare workers and social care workers time to consider this but if uptake remains poor I think it will become mandated.”
Currently, 75% of the adult population has been vaccinated against Coronavirus.
Professor Semple’s comments come as new data shows 1 in 10 people treated for Covid during the first wave in 2020 caught the virus whilst in hospital for another reason.
Between March and August 2020, residential community care and mental health hospitals had a hospital-acquired infection rate of 61.9% and 67.5% respectively.
General hospitals had an infection rate of 9.7% in the same time period.
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Quoting the research paper, on which he is a co-author, Professor Semple said the current figures for people catching Covid while in hospital is “between 2% and 5%.” Researchers believe between 5,699 and 11,862 people admitted to hospital with Covid during the first wave would have caught the virus during their stay.
Despite the given figures, researchers also say this is likely to be an underestimate of the real number.
The vaccine rollout and improved testing and PPE supplies have been cited as some of the main reasons why the infection rate in hospitals has lowered in comparison to the first wave of the pandemic.
There is a growing fear the number of people catching Covid while being treated in hospital will increase over the winter when flu cases and other illnesses are expected to be prevalent.
Asked if he believed NHS workers who refuse to get vaccinated without a medical exemption should be unable to treat patients, Professor Semple said “That is the logical interpretation of what I am saying.”
Professor Semple has worked as a senior lecturer at the University of Liverpool since 2006 and has been involved with both the university and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital since 1999 after training in London and Oxford.
