Covid-19: Compulsory vaccine for NI care home staff 'not necessary'

Robin Swann says there has been a "large uptake" of the Covid-19 vaccine among care home staff

About three-quarters of staff at care homes in Northern Ireland have had a Covid-19 vaccination, according to the chief medical officer.

About 90% of care home residents have also been vaccinated.

It comes as England moves to make vaccination compulsory for care home workers.

Staff there are expected to be given 16 weeks to have the jab, with those who refuse facing redeployment away from front-line care or losing their jobs.

The chief medical officer believes at least three quarters of staff in Northern Ireland are already vaccinated.

"It's probably much higher than that," Sir Michael McBride told a Stormont briefing.

"That's the number of staff who have been vaccinated in care homes, and don't forget many others would have been able to access the trust vaccination centres, either because they were a certain age cohort, or healthcare workers, so it's at least 70, 75% most probably a lot higher,"

Robin Swann said he didn't want the issue to distract people from getting their vaccine

Vaccine teams were deployed to care homes in NI, resulting in a "large uptake" among staff, Health Minister Robin Swann told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme.

Mr Swann said he did not want to introduce a mandatory policy.

"We're not in the place where we have to make vaccines compulsory at this minute in time," he said.

"I don't want this issue to become something that distracts people from coming forward to get their vaccine."

The minister said the department would look at whether or not vaccine teams need to be redeployed to care homes to deliver vaccines to staff in their place of work.

Northern Ireland was the first part of the UK to get into the care homes with a vaccine, so many months ago.

We had mobile coaches and clinics going around the care homes, vaccinating not only residents but staff as well.

We had a pretty good turnout.

But clearly there is a small percentage of people who aren't vaccinated and there are still several homes where there are outbreaks.

John Patrick Clayton of Unison, Northern Ireland's largest healthcare union, said the organisation would be very concerned at the prospect of moving from encouragement to enforcement.

Mr Clayton said it could be counter-productive and drive people out of an already under-staffed profession.

Care home residents and staff were among the first group to be offered a Covid-19 vaccination in December 2020, when its rollout began in Northern Ireland.

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There are now just two outbreaks out of more than 450 homes across Northern Ireland.

Most of them are privately-run, which means staff are privately employed - and the sector is already short-staffed.

"We believe making the vaccination compulsory would really just create as many problems as it does resolve," said Pauline Shepherd, from Independent Health and Care Providers.

"It brings up issues in human rights, employment legislation and various other things, and it's very difficult from an employment point of view to do that retrospectively.

"Going forward it might be an issue that we would need to think about in recruitment, but it would need to be thought about across the whole of the health and social care system, not just in care homes."