Around 30,000 unvaccinated care staff will not be allowed to work from today.

[CalamariGames]

www.thesun.co.uk/health/16698590/care-home-staff-lose-job-unvaccinated/

This seems really concerning. I personally am in favour of the vaccination and I think care home staff should be vaccinated but this seems like a massive shortage of staff to compensate for in an industry that is already having difficulty with recruitment. What is the government doing to ensure vulnerable patients are getting the care they need?

What is the government doing to ensure vulnerable patients are getting the care they need?

Blaming other people.

Whatever people think about those that choose not to have the vaccine, the lack of care staff is not their fault.

Some of the entitled comments on here willing punishment on some of the poorest paid hard-working, caring but probably misguided folk is a real eye-opener.
Misguided people need to be given guidance. The government should be guiding unvaccinated people to get vaccinated. Telling them they can’t work as carers or medical professionals is a good start but it needs to be extended further.

@Ryannah

The real problem is for those who need care and either won't get it at all or will get reduced quality care from overstretched workers I don’t think it’s wise to have people who don’t believe in medicine caring for people who need medical care.

Care assistants deliver social care, not medical care. We're not trained to deliver medical care. Some are trained in some medical procedures that can fall under social care too, but by and large carers don't and aren't expected to deliver medical care. And further to that, seeing as vaccination was never even a thought until recently, why would carers have any knowledge above and beyond anyone else, believe in the science above any other person or not have doubts like any other person may?

@Pippi1970

It's nothing to do with the tories - France and Italy and most of Europe is doing the same thing. In fact All workers in Italy will need to be vaccinated.

Or test regularly, or have a recovered from Covid certificate.

@Ryannah

Personally I’m happy to see any punishment for selfish antivaxxers. If carers don’t trust in modern medicine and won’t protect their vulnerable patients then they shouldn’t be working in the care sector. All their colleagues have been jabbed and so have the people they care for, they’re just being selfish and ridiculous.

If this sort of attitude were aired 2 years ago, we’d have called you a lunatic dictator.

“Any punishment” for not taking a vaccine? I’ll presume that includes death? How’s that feeling having that sort of attitude?

There’s a book called Ordinary Men which is a powerful account of how ordinary people had to work for the nazis in killing people. This included shooting pregnant women because they were Jewish. It’s an exploration about the evil that lays in all of us, yet most of us are incapable of realising that we too could have been a nazi officer committing those ‘crimes’

@Ryannah I’m presuming your “any punishment for selfish anti-vaxxers” does include pregnant women, elderly people themselves (should they be thrown out of the care homes?), people with mental health issues, the list goes on.

I’d be thoroughly ashamed of myself if I even wrote those words on an anonymous forum.

“Any punishment”

Wow.

Took 106 messages for Godwin to appear.
Not bad I suppose.

Because

a) Brexit has turned off a method of coping with staff shortages by recruiting from our nearest neighbours. It has not just turned off recruitment now but led to an exodus of undervalued, overworked EU citizens that have gone home never to return. The Tories refuse point blank to acknowledge that elephant in the room as do some here.
b) The UK leads the way in privatisation and financialisation of the care home sector by private equity and others who have and are sucking out money from them.

www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/europes-elderly-care-problem/

@ShinyHappyPoster

It seems like a deliberate attempt to bring the care system and the NHS to its knees so the Government can push towards privatisation and giving large contracts to private companies for new recruitment/training drives, etc. This has been one of the most destructive Conservative governments in living memory. They are dismantling everything that defined the UK and it will take a long time for their deliberate sabotage to be undone.

The care system has esentially been privatised for many decades now. The days of council-run care homes are long gone in most areas.

It is not, though, a very profitable sector. Care homes are constantly going into administration and closing. Most people have absolutely no idea how expensive 24/7 care really is.

Personally I’m happy to see any punishment for selfish antivaxxers.

And if you ever find yourself waiting five hours for an ambulance because the social care crisis means the NHS is ridiculously backed up, I hope that thought keeps you feeling all warm and snuggly inside.

@Lollolloll

Well they’re obviously not the brightest are they? They’ve had ample warnings and chances to get vaccinated and would rather not do it and be out of work before Christmas?

It’s their choice, but they shouldn’t be eligible for benefits.

Don't be so ridiculous. We need less people like you in the world.

Sometimes I feel like I see medieval witch hunts on here being cheered on as some hapless lonely spinster with too many cats gets ducked in the local pond before being burned to the delights and cries of the pitchfork bearing villagers.

Burn the vaccine heretics - they shall not pass !

If the government genuinely ‘cared’ about the people who rely on carers they would not be doing this. They don’t care, never have and never will.

@vera99

Sometimes I feel like I see medieval witch hunts on here being cheered on as some hapless lonely spinster with too many cats gets ducked in the local pond before being burned to the delights and cries of the pitchfork bearing villagers.

Burn the vaccine heretics - they shall not pass !

Sad state of affairs.

Care providers, care assistants and service users are crying out for help to get through this loss of staff - and to answer that we have "Shouldn't be in care anyway, well shot" from some quarters and some TV adverts from the government.
Too busy feeling self important about their superior selves to even think about the fucking concequences and how on earth that's going to be dealt with. All suddenly go deaf then. If it's not slagging people off under the guise of protecting the vulnerable then they're not interested.

Why don't some of you know it all go and try care work you wouldn't last long

@PAFMO

Took 106 messages for Godwin to appear. Not bad I suppose.

It’s a shame people believe they are somehow ‘above’ being compared to the Germans in 1940s.

Yes, I know, you are not a nazi

When I been to visit a couple of friend's elderly parenmts in a couple of care homes I have seen probably 50% BAME/EU staff and probably the other half white British. All seemed to be very caring folk who did a challenging job in the most difficult of circumstances. They went through hell at the beginning of the pandemic when the scale of the threat and risk was pretty unknown. But they stayed at their stations and cared for the vulnerable and elderly and we clapped and clapped and clapped whilst Hancock and chums lied about the protective ring they hadn't thrown around them. Indeed they discharged untested folk right back into the centre of the developing storm.

To any here cheering on the sacking of the vaccine-hesitant take a long hard look in the mirror or even better roll up your sleeves and volunteer to help rather than showing your obvious lack of empathy on a public forum.

My solution - would be more carrot and less stick and in any event given the bed blocking in hospitals that care home vacancies will result in kick the can down the road to spring like the rest of the NHS.

My solution - would be more carrot and less stick

What would your carrot be?

@Amberflames

My solution - would be more carrot and less stick

What would your carrot be?

Better pay and not sacking them might help?

To any here cheering on the sacking of the vaccine-hesitant take a long hard look in the mirror or even better roll up your sleeves and volunteer to help rather than showing your obvious lack of empathy on a public forum

What a ridiculous comment.

Ok off the top of my head

Some form of education and training.Dedicated DoH team working on that - maybe a roadshow, time off for hesitant staff to attend. A cash bonus. One to ones with the staff recognising long service and performance and encouraging them to engage with the education programmes.

A delay to the spring same as the NHS for parities sake. A full impact assessment by HMG to determine the overall risk/benefits of vaccine mandates before implementing the policy not just ploughing on into the storm blind.

I would combine that with mass recruitment overseas to help backfill the chronic shortages that exist and are getting worse.

Hasn't there been a lot of education about this already? Cash incentives - people were up in arms when this was suggested in the past

Currently, 80k vacancies are being actively advertised in the Care Home Sector and 120k nurses. For those pushing the non-vax out of the door would be interested in how you will be filling these vacancies?

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10194281/Britains-job-vacancies-hit-time-high-2-7million.html

Assistance in understanding big numbers might help. Many of these vaccine refusers are still saying that they don't think there has been enough testing when in reality well over 4 BILLION of us have been vaccinated.

I don't know - there will be greater uproar if care collapses in some instances. It has been well documented if we push the non-vaxers out then the situation worsens for the remaining staff and there will come a breaking point when even more leave.

The problem with a bonus is it is unfair on those that took it willingly.

Religion seems to be playing a role in this as well. If some happy-clappy pastor has his claws into the faithful how do we deal with that? Otherwise good caring citizens are deep in a religious belief. Sikh men are allowed to wear turbans rather than crash helmets - a bit different I know but we do have exemptions from public safety laws based on belief.

edition.cnn.com/2021/04/14/us/covid-vaccine-evangelicals/index.html