Residential care homes may close over mandatory staff vaccines
LONDON: Elderly, disabled and vulnerable care home residents could be left at higher risk of catching Covid-19 because of the Government’s ban on unvaccinated staff, it is feared.
Under a tough new law, more than 40,000 frontline carers will be forced out of their jobs within weeks after refusing to get the jab.
But providers were already struggling to fill record numbers of vacancies and say they will be forced to close units, floors or even entire residential homes if they cannot meet required staffing levels from November 11.
This could mean pensioners being moved into hospital wards, where they could be looked after by unvaccinated former care home staff as the ‘no jab, no job’ rule does not currently apply in the NHS.
Care industry bosses are pleading with ministers to put the mandatory vaccination order on hold during the winter, when the health service is already expected to come under huge pressure from another wave of coronavirus cases as well as a resurgence in flu.
Professor Martin Green, chief executive of trade body Care England, said: ‘The Government talks about an integrated system and yet they have not imposed the same rules for vaccination on the NHS. If we have a really severe staff shortage, services will close.
‘It will mean the residents will lose their homes but also that the system will have to find them somewhere else to live and that may put extra pressure on the NHS.’
Baroness Altmann, a former Tory pensions minister, described the policy as ‘nonsensical’, given that NHS and home care staff are not included and that mandatory vaccination does not prevent transmission of Covid.
Because care homes are required by the Care Quality Commission regulator to have sufficient staff on duty at all times, they cannot operate if numbers dip too low.
Two care homes in Cumbria are already closing because they cannot recruit enough staff. Privately-run Barrock Court near Carlisle, which had 28 beds, is shutting its doors permanently while council-run Maudes Meadow in Kendal, home to 11, will close for at least six months.
A report last week by workforce charity Skills For Care found that 6.8 per cent of roles in adult social care were unfilled in 2020-21 – equivalent to 105,000 vacancies.
Although the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is now consulting on whether all frontline health workers should have to have the Covid jab, the rule does not currently apply in the NHS so many former care home staff are taking jobs in hospitals.
A spokesman for the DHSC said: ‘We are working with councils and providers to ensure we have the right number of staff with the skills to deliver high-quality care to meet increasing demands.’
The Department of Health and Social Care is now consulting on whether all frontline health workers should have the Covid jab, but the rule does not currently apply in the NHS so many former care home staff are taking jobs in hospitals.
