Hundreds of Blackpool hospital staff still unvaccinated

The Government is considering whether to make the vaccinations compulsory for all health staff.

It will already be compulsory from November 11 for all staff working in care homes to be vaccinated against Covid 19.

A meeting of the Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust board heard eight per cent of hospital staff were still unvaccinated against Covid which amounted to hundreds of workers.

A report to the board warned there was a risk of staff either leaving or having to be redeployed if they continued to refuse the jab if it became mandatory.

Non-executive director James Wilkie told the meeting: “We have still got eight per cent of staff unvaccinated. Translate that to numbers, that’s several hundred people.

“This report says the risk is people leaving, or being redeployed. My view is how on earth, if we wanted to, could we redeploy several hundred people.”

He warned if jabs were to become compulsory “we could be looking at dismissals”.

Mr Wilkie said hearings would have to be held for each case, and so the hospital needed to ensure it had prepared its policy in relation to the issue.

He also called on the hospital to redouble its efforts to persuade people to have the vaccination ahead of a possible introduction of compulsory jabs next spring.

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