How is this right, vaccine roll out

[Juststopmoaning]

My sons friend works for the NHS in admin. He is in his 20s, fit and healthy. He can work from home but chooses to go into the office where there is only 1 other person. Because he works for the NHS he was offered the jab and had it last week. I'm in my 50s, a teacher and in class teaching 19 year 10 students. I don't want to get into when teachers should have the jab, I'm happy to wait my turn but it just seems very unfair that because this lad works for the NHS he has had the jab even tho he doesn't come into contact with any patients

It's not fair but it's how it is. I'm group 6 despite being a childminder so open to all. No testing. I'm also a carer for my disabled son and morbidly obese but I am actually fit and healthy and have already had covid so there is just a resignation that I have to wait

I know 3 people who work in nhs admin from home and they’ve all had the jab. I don’t understand it either apart from maybe if they had to redeploy them to the hospital to work but not sure how likely that is.

With out the NHS admin staff they’d be up a creek.

They’re protecting their workforce as per the priority order.

Good luck with keeping the NHS staff going if the admin staff are all off with Covid.

It's not fair however it's getting someone who would be vaccinated anyway, out the way. It's NHS policy to vaccinate all their staff, without their admin staff it wouldn't tick over as well. Also, a lot of nhs admin staff have been told they may need to be redeployed at any point if things continue to decline.

Without NHS administrative staff there wouldn't be much of a vaccine rollout at all.

The NHS isn't just doctors and nurses. It's cleaners and porters and admin staff and practice managers and many others.

Why do people not understand that if the back office functions of the NHS don't function (because people are off sick or isolating) the front line NHS doesn't work?

It's not very complicated.

I’ve just had some major surgery, who do you think booked the consultants, the surgeon, the nurses, organised the bed and made sure there was space for me. The admin staff are VITAL to ensure that the medical teams are in the right place and that patients are booked in. It’s absolutely right that he has had it.

@user1493413286

I know 3 people who work in nhs admin from home and they’ve all had the jab. I don’t understand it either apart from maybe if they had to redeploy them to the hospital to work but not sure how likely that is.

Just because staff are working from home, doesn’t mean they aren’t crucial to the running of the NHS. No point having all the front line staff if the hospital can’t function because all the behind the scenes staff are off sick.

Don’t know about other trusts, but ours are using the Pfizer vaccine which means they need to use all the doses once they’ve opened them. No point just chucking them because you have some left over. Better to do whoever you can get regardless of wherever they are in the queue.

The thing is, if we are vaccinating NHS admin staff with no risk factors or patient contact because they are 'vital', then what does it say about police, education, fire service that we won't vaccinate those workers early too, even if they do have risk factors and are working frontline? Are those services not also vital?
If policing stopped I'm sure people would complain. We know people complain if teachers are off and education stops.
As a policy, it doesn't make sense.

Our admin staff get pulled in if someone else doesn’t turn up for their vaccine. Means it doesn’t get wasted. Can’t pull teachers, police officers, fire service etc in with 3 mins notice.

Do we really want NHS wasting time trying to figure out if someone's job is "too admin" to be offered the covid jab?

I know gal who is head of infection control at nearby hospital. Most of her job involves being behind a desk. But she still goes hands on sometimes. How hands on would satisfy OP? 10% of her time? 50%? Who would monitor that, should the infec-control person actually have to track their hours by activity, as if they didn't have enough admin & training to keep on top of.

Admin staff are vital in a hospital. And they do get pulled in left right and centre. I worked in a background admin managerial role for several years at a large hospital. Even though I was a suited n booted, I kept a pair of steel toe capped boots under my desk...I've restocked supply cupboards, helped move patients, checked on wards, helped shift equipment to repurpose areas... run records, tracked down and gone and grabbed people who are needed... yes 90% of the time no where near a patient, but when a call goes out, it is all hands to deck.

Can just see it now, "sorry we can't get that file, or that piece of equipment to you as we don't have any available vaccinated staff. Yes we know the porters are not available and normally we would just send a member of the admin team to do it...but none of them are vaccinated"

How many admin people would it take to work out a “yes vaccinate” or “no don’t vaccinate” decision for every NHS member of staff? To maintain, update and monitor that list?

And given they are only admin, that list isn’t complete if the people making the list get ill, delaying things further.

Hospitals have freezers, easy infrastructure to mass vaccinate (large -70 storage, sharps bins, pharmacists, existing email distribution list etc etc etc), plus a vaccine that can’t be held over and where each vial does not have a fixed number of doses. Would you not just say “hey, there is efficiency in just getting it done”.

When it gets to teachers will you be saying: person A works in school only 3 days but is 49. Person B does 5 days but is only 25 years old. But person A has 30 in a class and B has 12. And then working out the order of priority of the entire UK teaching profession balanced against the fact that vaccines cannot be distributed and stored as individual doses.

Calm down everyone.

Clearly this is not the place for people to understand.

Won't be reading replies.

Happy arguing everyone

@Plussizejumpsuit

Why do people not understand that if the back office functions of the NHS don't function (because people are off sick or isolating) the front line NHS doesn't work?

It's not very complicated.

Exactly this. There was a similar post a couple of days ago and op could still not get it

@Juststopmoaning

Calm down everyone.

Clearly this is not the place for people to understand.

Won't be reading replies.

Happy arguing everyone

You asked a question and people responded with no that's not how it works. Plenty of explanations, and scenarios to demonstrate. No one is arguing, just explaining.

It's stressful and personally yes I would like to see all teachers and school staff vaccinated like yesterday. Hopefully we will see this rolled out ASAP.

@Juststopmoaning

Calm down everyone.

Clearly this is not the place for people to understand.

Won't be reading replies.

Happy arguing everyone

Hilarious!!! (In other words 'Damn they're right, I hadn't thought of that, but I'm too immature to admit that so I'll flounce')!

@Juststopmoaning

Calm down everyone.

Clearly this is not the place for people to understand.

Won't be reading replies.

Happy arguing everyone

A flounce after barely 10 replies -is that a record

Ha ha ha the OP's reaction is a classic!

My DS1(26) is NHS admin, WFH one day a week
He liaises with consultants and nurses on a daily bases. Without admin staff the nhs wouldn't function...
He's had his first vaccine this morning at the Hospital( Pfizer)
I'm group 6( 2 conditions) and due for mine end February if all goes to plan

@Lockheart

Without NHS administrative staff there wouldn't be much of a vaccine rollout at all.

The NHS isn't just doctors and nurses. It's cleaners and porters and admin staff and practice managers and many others.

This.

Possibly teachers manage terribly well without all their back office functions, in which case one wonders why they need so much of it, but the NHS relies on the people who make the system work to provide healthcare to everyone, including teachers.

For someone "happy to wait their turn" the OP seems to be totally unhappy to wait their turn and damned rude about waiting their turn as well.

Hope you appreciated posters time to reply anyway

@Juststopmoaning

Calm down everyone.

Clearly this is not the place for people to understand.

Won't be reading replies.

Happy arguing everyone

Haha, I've had a shocking few days with some really awful news, but this made me laugh out loud. Thank you.

People have explained why it makes perfect sense, but it's not the answer you wanted so you're not interested. How would you respond a such a student?

We don't have time nor resources to do a "person by person" evaluation of who's more worthy. So we have to do it my risk groups. An NHS worker may not themselves be patient facing, so less risk of both catching it and spreading it, but, some may well come into regular contact with front line staff, in meetings, canteens, corridors, and I'm sure that front line staff sometimes have to go into the office/admin areas. I really can't imagine the person you're talking about works in a vacuum where they have no contact whatsoever with any other NHS workers. Hospitals are one of the worst places where people catch covid, so it makes sense that all hospital staff are vaccinated. Not to mention, if staff are vaccinated they're less likely to catch it and have to isolate or take time off sick, so more staff working, which means more patients can be treated (even admin staff off work has a knock on effect on other staff who may have to cover their workload).