NHS England has written to Trusts across the UK to outline plans to vaccinate all frontline staff against Covid-19 following the rollout of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
From the middle of January, all NHS Trusts will be able to provide vaccinations for local healthcare and social care workers, which will be critical in keeping both them and patients safe.
The life-saving jab will be offered to all staff across NHS services, including those who work in general practices, pharmacies, dentists and other primary and secondary care settings.
It will also be available to ambulance trusts, volunteers and all independent providers, such as community-based mental health services.
Local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) will co-ordinate the details for all staff on how and when to get their jab, and local vaccination centres will also be able to deliver jabs at short notice in order to prevent wastage.
Clinics will be scaled up to enable vaccinations to take place seven days a week and health and social care workers will be invited to book appointments.
The NHS will ensure CCGs have a full list of providers, including independent and private services. For example, private sector dentists registered with the CQC, which the NHS has access to.
While the priority so far has been to deliver the vaccine to those most in need, a number of staff will have already received their first dose. The aim is to have made significant progress in immunising all frontline staff by the first week of February and uptake will be continuously monitored.
The vaccination of workers will be prioritised based on local risk assessments, which will consider factors such as face-to-face contact time, underlying health conditions and whether people are from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, all of which are proven risk factors.
Ensuring widespread vaccine coverage among those most at risk in our workforce will be an important factor in reducing the disproportionate impact Covid-19 presents.
The procedure of rolling the vaccine out to staff will be very similar to that of flu vaccinations, which this winter had a high uptake of almost 75%.
Chief Nursing Officer for NHS England, Ruth May, said: “This is the biggest vaccination programme in NHS history and as we move to the next phase of the rollout, it is only right that we prioritise the NHS staff who have been on the frontline of this global pandemic.
“We will be prioritising the nurses, doctors and other frontline staff who continue to work tirelessly, before administering the vaccine to almost all health and social care staff by mid-February.”
Chief People Officer Prerana Issar said: “Frontline staff across the NHS have been working around the clock to keep patients safe throughout the pandemic. It’s absolutely essential that we protect them while they care for patients, and the approval of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine is helping us to do that.”
Immunising healthcare workers will both prevent them from becoming ill and colleagues from being required to self-isolate, enhancing the ability of the NHS to provide an excellent service.
Hospital hubs will need to facilitate appointments for outside of peak times and at weekends for those workers who are only available at those hours.
It will also be the responsibility of local authorities to ensure that all social care workers are able to receive their jabs and they will similarly be contacted directly. All social care workers will be eligible for the jab regardless of whether they work in hospitals, people’s homes or another setting, or who employs them.
Individual Trusts will make sure they have sufficient vaccinators dependent on the size of their staff cohort and they will be able to draw on the national workforce where necessary.
Professor Andrew Goddard, President of the Royal College of Physicians said: “The RCP welcomes the additional guidance that all NHS trusts will be established as hubs to vaccinate all frontline healthcare workers by mid-January. It is imperative that we are all vaccinated as soon as possible, to protect our patients, protect ourselves and keep as many of us delivering care as possible.”
Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden, President of the Doctors’ Association UK said: “For frontline staff who are risking their lives every day to keep patients safe, this announcement couldn’t have come soon enough. Tragically we have lost too many healthcare workers to COVID in the UK. Frontline NHS and care workers absolutely must be protected as a matter of priority and we are pleased to see this announcement from NHS England today”.
