Hospitals told to immediately start vaccinating all frontline staff

Instruction comes as rising worker sickness leaving wards understaffed

All NHS hospitals across England have been told to start vaccinating frontline health and care workers immediately in the face of growing coronavirus pressures on the health service.

In a letter sent to NHS bosses on Thursday NHS England said all hospitals would be established as vaccine hubs by the middle of January with each one responsible for inoculating their local NHS and social care staff.

Priority will be given to those most at risk and treating infected patients but NHS England said it wanted all staff vaccinated as quickly as possible with significant progress expected by the start of February.

The move comes as rising staff sickness across the NHS is leaving wards and hospitals dangerously understaffed. The latest data from the NHS in England showed almost half of staff absences – 46,378 out of a total of 95,452 – were now linked to Covid, either through sickness or staff needing to isolate.

In London, the southeast and east of England regions, the proportion linked to Covid is almost 60 per cent.

There have been growing calls from unions and professional groups to vaccinate NHS staff in the wake of the new more transmissible virus strain. Hospitals in London have had to appeal for staff to work extra shifts and volunteers to help nurses look after patients.

In the letter, signed by NHS England’s chief commercial officer Emily Lawson, who is responsible for the deployment of the Covid vaccines, hospitals were told there was an “immediate requirement to vaccinate frontline health and social care workers”.

“This is critical to ensure we protect health and care workers, patients and the public at a time when Covid-19 pressures across health and care are intensifying.

“By mid-January, all NHS trusts will be established as ‘hospital hubs’ and the default provider of COVID-19 vaccinations for all healthcare and social care workers.”

She said all NHS trusts would be involved including mental health, community and ambulance trusts as well as hospitals.

Those staff likely to be prioritised include those with regular face to face contact with patients across all settings, those working in hospices and community-based setting as well as lab technicians and mortuary staff.

Agency staff and those working for cleaning or portering companies will also be prioritised along with social care workers.

The letter said immediate action should be taken to offer the vaccine to staff and hospitals should coordinate with local authorities to deliver the vaccine to care workers as well as GPs and other primary care staff.

The letter added: “It is expected that trusts will complete Covid-19 vaccination of all frontline health and social care workers as quickly as possible. Trusts will need to focus on achieving maximum uptake of the vaccine; with the expectation to have made significant progress by the first week of February, and to provide vaccinations seven days a week.”

On Wednesday the government announced 1.3 million people across the UK had already been vaccinated against coronavirus including a quarter of the most elderly, vulnerable patients.

The NHS has said it will aim to achieve up to two million vaccinations a week if the supplies of the Pfizer/BioNtech and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines are delivered.

Ministers are hoping to vaccinate all the over-70s, and the most clinically vulnerable patients by mid-February.