Mandatory NHS Covid vaccinations: 'I feel stalked, bullied, harassed'

"It just made me feel worthless and like I was not a human being," says London midwife Pamela Bischof

An order that all frontline NHS staff must be vaccinated or face being sacked was rescinded at the last minute earlier this week.

While some workers were relieved to find out they still had a job, others are so angry at the way they have been treated they are looking to leave.

Despite the last-minute U-turn, staff are warning of an exodus from the NHS.

The BBC has spoken to four midwives whose confidence in their employer has been shattered.

'It's a scandal'

More than 18,500 NHS London workers were recorded as unvaccinated by the day of the 3 February deadline, when dismissal proceedings were set to begin

Pamela Bischof, who has been an NHS midwife for 11 years, said she felt "stalked, bullied and harassed" with letters, emails and text messages telling her she would be sacked if she did not get vaccinated.

"It's a scandal," she said. "I felt under enormous pressure and it felt like being stalked, like I was being bullied. I felt harassed."

She works in London, which until the U-turn was facing the biggest losses of any region in England, with nearly double the average numbers of unjabbed staff.

Ms Bischof is a survivor of female genital mutilation and says the NHS's mandatory vaccine policy "threw me back" to a time when she was nine years old and "somebody was trying to force me to do something I didn't want to do".

"Those emotions haven't gone away," she said. "I feel so, so badly treated that I'm thinking of resigning, because it just made me feel worthless and like I was not a human being."

She is one of more than 18,500 NHS London workers who were recorded as unvaccinated by the 3 February deadline, when dismissal proceedings were set to begin.

The 45-year-old from south London was taken off rotas beyond the deadline, despite "giving my all" to the NHS during the pandemic, and had already said her goodbyes to her patients, all of whom knew she was unvaccinated and still wanted her care.

"I'm a human being so I broke down and cried and they broke down and they cried," Ms Bischof said. "We're not being appreciated.

"This situation just showed us there was really no point: I could work in Tesco or Sainsbury's and not be under the kind of pressure I was put under."

Ms Bischof said she believed significant numbers of NHS staff were now "halfway out of the door", with some already training to work elsewhere.

"I'm going for my doula training next week and hypnobirthing training in two weeks," she said. "I don't see any reason why I should be put in that position with no support; there's really no point when I can do something for myself."

'I have hardly slept'

Midwife Jade Moore is thinking of changing career

Jade Moore, 40, from east London, has been a midwife for 13 years. She said her treatment had been "insulting" and so she was looking at taking her qualifications in aesthetics "off the backburner".

"I have hardly slept," she said. "I have given my heart and soul to the NHS so it's heart-breaking.

"There are many people that have been planning ahead to look for other jobs."

A letter sent to NHS England bosses sets out how managers had begun to prepare for "formal meetings" with staff from 4 February, although the NHS is now requesting managers do not serve notice of termination to employees affected by what it calls VCOD - vaccination as condition of deployment.

The letter also states that the issue of VCOD remains subject to a parliamentary vote, and reiterates that vaccination is the best protection from Covid for "yourself, your family, your colleagues and, of course, your patients".

• Unvaccinated staff cross the border for NHS jobs

• Why some people don't want a Covid-19 vaccine

Ms Moore said she believed there would "most definitely" be a significant number of people quitting the NHS, and not just the thousands of unvaccinated staff. She pointed out that there are many workers who have had the vaccination, but only because this was a condition of seeing relatives abroad or going on holiday.

There are also those people who have chosen to change roles or leave the NHS entirely because of the toll on their mental health over the past two years.

Mandatory vaccinations: a timeline

• 27 November: First case of Omicron identified in the UK

• 14 December: MPs agree an emergency law requiring frontline NHS workers to be fully vaccinated from 1 April

• 31 January: Health Secretary Sajid Javid announces he intends to revoke the law, because the risk of serious illness from Omicron is half that of Delta. NHS England orders bosses to put plans for dismissals and redeployment on hold

• 4 February: The date by which staff were to be told they would be given a notice of dismissal if they had not had their first jab

• Ongoing: Consultations with NHS England, before the planned revocation of the law is put before MPs for a vote

'A slap in the face'

Tamara Parker said midwives were unofficially told there would be no redeployment and their jobs would be advertised on 4 February

Tamara Parker said many NHS workers felt "they're out, they're done", even though bosses are now rowing back from the threat of mass dismissals.

The 37-year-old from north London said that after 18 years as an NHS midwife putting informed patient consent first, she was not about to be "blackmailed" into getting vaccinated before she was ready.

She said: "This has really felt like a slap in the face, so quite a few are looking at alternative careers now."

Ms Parker believes many within the NHS are looking for alternative work, "because they don't believe this has ended... they are just looking for a back door".

NHS London midwives Tamara Parker and Jade Moore, pictured here with their children

'I was crying every night'

Naimah Nicholls, 55, and from south London, has worked as an NHS nurse and midwife in a busy London hospital since 1986.

She said that in the run-up to the deadline she experienced "extreme stress, crying every night and not being able to focus at work because I was under threat of losing my job".

• The unvaccinated NHS workers facing the sack

• Ministers plan to scrap NHS jab requirement for England

• Government may U-turn on compulsory NHS staff jabs

Now, she said, her relief at the U-turn had turned to anger at being unsupported. She explained that she had lost her passion for the NHS.

"It's not a place I want to work for much longer," she said. "I started making plans to leave because I had to, going into my own business as a doula.

"A lot of people are angry and morale is at rock bottom, more so than ever before, because the stress has been off the scale."

Covid vaccinations in NHS England

• Figures show that as of 31 December - a month after the Omicron wave hit the UK - there were 85,083 outstanding staff vaccinations across the country, 18,633 of which were in London.

• The 9.3% of unvaccinated workers in London is a figure higher than the one across NHS England as a whole, where 5.7% of staff remain unvaccinated.

• A third of NHS staff in London have not had a booster, a total of 65,702, and 26,396 have not had a second dose, which is also well above the English average.

• NHS national medical director Prof Stephen Powis said unvaccinated colleagues were still being offered advice and encouragement. He said: "The NHS has always been clear that the life-saving Covid vaccination is the best protection against the virus."

• Prof Powis added: "The overwhelming majority of staff in NHS organisations, nine in 10, have already had their second jab, and NHS employers will continue to support and encourage staff who have not yet been vaccinated to take up the offer of the first and second doses ahead of the 1st of April, when regulations come into effect."

• A Department of Health spokesman confirmed that the health secretary was in the process of revoking the mandatory vaccination requirement, but added that NHS staff "still have a professional duty to get vaccinated".