To ask Health care staff treating me if they've had their covid vaccine?

[BearEastie]

I am immunosuppressed. I've been vaccinated but they don't know how well it will work yet.

I would prefer to only be treated by staff who had been vaccinated, thus if they said no I would ask for limited contact or a swap in nursing etc.

Just read shocking statistics from the hospital I am due to go to next month for a two week stay and I am starting to freak out just a little bit.

You have no right to ask that, and I think it would be incredibly rude to ask that from people who are doing their job in looking after you. You certainly don’t have the right to ask to be treated by only vaccinated people - do you think it’s ok for you refuse the tiny risk yourself while passing it on to others who are also ill?

While I understand that you are worried, you only get to make the choices that affect you, not others. If you’d rather not be treated by people that might not be vaccinated, then don’t have the treatment.

@lljkk

"Flu jab where we are the staff get a badge "

where does that happen in NHS?
I don't go to doctors much so not much chance to notice their badges.

It’s a thing in some trusts. Pointless waste of money if you ask me

You certainly don’t have the right to ask to be treated by only vaccinated people - do you think it’s ok for you refuse the tiny risk yourself while passing it on to others who are also ill?

It's not a tiny bloody risk though is it? The consequences for me are potentially life changing.

Who provides my treatment does affect me, and I am allowed to ask for someone else to provide it - everyone who uses the NHS is actually allowed to do this.

Anyway, thank you for the good advice and suggestions from those posters who offered it, and thank you for the reassurance on redeployment for those staff who have not taken the vaccine.

BearEastie I'd suggest you contact them beforehand, explain about your particular concerns - they should be able to reassure you. You are of course right to be as careful as possible, as you are immunosuppressed.

And for everyone, please continue to be careful, people are still getting seriously unwell and even dying of COVID after having the first vaccine. We lost a colleague.

Thanks @StellaAndCrow, that's exactly what I am going to do now.

I am very sorry to hear you lost a colleague.

Oh I did, it just got worse. You actually admitted that I was a greater risk after denying I was.

If it was the comment about masks, that was a generalisation about the fact that a huge number of people don't wear them correctly so i'm sorry if that wasn't obvious.

OP your entire thread is based on the premise that HCPs are somehow not entitled to the same rights that you are, such as the right to medical confidentiality. I was extrapolating that to point out that HCPs have and continue to put themselves in harm's way daily, and your thread is coming across very much as though you have a greater right than they do to avoid that harm. Your right to protection is no greater than an HCP's. Therefore, if you need medical treatment you are going to have to accept the same level of PPE use as they do.
As I pointed out already, you have the benefit of vaccination and almost certainly already protected from serious disease. All this thread is doing is yet again, demonising HCPs for absolutely no good reason.

We get a sticker, off a sheet of stickers. Not an actual badge :) And a sweet from a tin that the nurse giving the jabs buys herself. :)

If you have been vaccinated and the people around you are using ppe correctly, then the risk is tiny.

And you didn’t answer the question, do you think it’s ok to pass the (tiny) risk onto other sick people when you aren’t prepared to accept it yourself?

Can’t you just be thankful for your free treatment and vaccination without needing to ask intrusive questions of people that are trying to help you? What happens if lots of the people you need to be treated by aren’t vaccinated?

Thank you BearEastie xx

I'm an HCP. I've never worn a badge that tells people I've had the flu vaccination (or a badge for the covid vaccination). The only badge I wear is my staff ID badge. We are not allowed to wear lanyards at my Trust. Even if I did wear a badge, you probably wouldn't see it very clearly as I wear full PPE during my shifts.

I'm happy to share with patients that I've had the vaccine, but it's more because I want to encourage as many as possible to vaccinated (if appropriate to them) and to share with them how it was for me (if they ask!).

Some of my colleagues have been unable to have the vaccine (due to allergies/medical history/whatever). I get the flu vaccine every year without fail. I'm asthmatic and need regular and PRN meds to manage it. I've been lucky enough to have my first dose of covid vaccine, but not my second. Would you have a problem with that (if you encountered staff who were in a similar position)? I WAS meant to have my second dose in mid January, but the policies for vaccinations changed and I have to wait until mid March. I'm a senior nurse on a very acute ward (full of level 2 resp patients). We're already short staffed. Redeploying me to a non-covid ward/department (until I got the booster) would be out of the question, as the only nurses that could replace me are HDU or ITU trained nurses.

Re: immunocompromised patients. Prior to covid, we would reverse barrier nurse these patients anyway. Hope that helps!

Your right to protection is no greater than an HCP's.

I haven't made the choice to not have the vaccine though have I? I have done everything in my power to reduce risk to others. You also have the benefit of the vaccination - as you said you made a choice not to take (fair play, but I don't want you treating me, a choice I get to make).

First do no harm and all that.

If I was nurse in charge, I would not be changing the allocation just before side you were not happy. Almost everyone is tested twice weekly. And staff medical history is none of your business. Having said that I am happy to tell people that I've had the jab. But you really have no right to ask.

Everyone is anxious and worried, we need to help each other to get through this as best as possible.

@lljkk

"Flu jab where we are the staff get a badge "

where does that happen in NHS?
I don't go to doctors much so not much chance to notice their badges.

We get a sticker if we are lucky! I didn't get one this year. 😰

@BearEastie I had mine yesterday. It wouldn’t have been possible to ask if the person had had their vaccine - it wasn’t clear who would actually give your vaccine until it was your turn. A different nurse ran through the form with me to the one who sanitizer my hands and a different nurse did my actual vaccine, and someone else after that checked it after and then let me go. It was very clean and safe, and I don’t think the nurse touched me at all... the jab was a scratch. I don’t think she was touching my arm when she gave it.

If you drive, you need to do a 15 minute wait, but some people were doing their wait inside - I walked, so left after a few minutes.

Side effects today haven’t been lovely but are fine overall.

If that helps at all.

@NailsNeedDoing how would i be passing risk on (sorry I missed that question)? I have done everything in my power to reduce my risk to others...

@TicTac80 Thanks, yes re the reverse barrier rooms - I have been in those (funky air flow ones is what I know them as)? I am kind of hoping for that but obviously it cannot be guaranteed that's where I will be.

Sorry your second vaccine was delayed too.

You shouldn’t rely on badges or stickers. I get the flu jab without fail every year. I never take a sticker because 1) I am not 5 years old and 2) I am not the property of the public (although I may ‘serve’ them) and my medical history is my own.

I actually think vaccination should be mandatory unless people have a valid reason but that would be a policy decision by the NHS and it is not for individual patients to demand of me.

I would actually always answer honestly, yes I have had my first Covid vaccination and I am hugely pro-vaccine. That said, there is an issue with pregnant staff or people who can’t currently have it etc and it is not fair to put them in a position of having to disclose their history or to be viewed wrongly as anti-vax. Whether pregnant staff get the vaccine is a discussion for them and their health care provider, not anyone else.

I do not advertise the fact I have had it as there is a huge amount of jealously and upset from many members of the public that I got it before them.

OP if you phoned my ward I wouldn't be able to give you reassurance at all, we often have no idea who will be on shift, use multiple agency staff from domestics through to registered nurses, and locum doctors.
The lanyards and badges you put so much faith in are often left around in boxes BTW for anyone who wants one, they absolutely don't guarantee that the rlwearer has had a vaccine.

I don’t think you can oblige anyone to tell you, so it would seem rather pointless trying to insist.

All of those who are only getting stickers - you getting short changed I'm afraid! The badges are ace... they must cost a fortune though. I often wondered if they would ever become collectible items.

The little flu animations on them are all different - I still need to figure out if they are based on any actual science of that year's strain.

Ok, ok I no longer trust the badges and the lanyards that have offered so much reassurance over the years

[quote BearEastie]@lljkk I've been under the care of two trusts and they both have flu fighter badges each year, and I think there was a fancy lanyard one year too.[/quote]
One year we had them delivered, the next 3 years we didn’t. I don’t actually wear the badge though as I’m too forgetful and am bound to forget to take it off and bugger up my washing machine.

I hate being asked if I’ve had my Covid vaccine, I feel patients are judging me for having it before their friends/relatives and it isn’t really anyone else’s business tbh.

@sheepisheep
Though I appreciate your immunosuppression puts you at greater risk of severe illness with covid, you've had a dose of vaccine which has excellent evidence in all groups for preventing serious disease. There is far, far better evidence for this than for reduction in transmission.

COVID-19 vaccination might provide a lower level of protection in people who are immunosuppressed or immunocompromised compared with the rest of the population
www.immunology.org/news/bsi-statement-covid-19-vaccines-for-patients-immunocompromised-immunosuppressed

@CovoidOfAllHumanity

People refusing to be vaccinated have been redeployed away from frontline work with vulnerable people in my trust. I think that's fair enough. They don't lose any pay or anything and there's been loads of redeployment due to Covid for many reasons so it's not a big ask in my view. Don't know what will happen long term if people still refuse.

Everyone should still be using PPE vaccinated or not but it's not as good as vaccination plus PPE.

It's reasonable to ask the Trust what assurances they can give you but not reasonable to ask each individual member of staff. It's for the trust to manage risk not individuals.

Really? Which Trust?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56125142

Not a London one I presume?

What would you do, if whoever you asked, answered no?