Over 100,000 doctors, nurses and other NHS staff will face being losing their jobs under Boris Johnson’s “folly” of sacking unjabbed workers, the Prime Minister was warned.
Trade union bosses urged Health Secretary Sajid Javid to delay making Covid jabs mandatory by the end of March “with immediate effect”.
The Government and NHS trusts are facing a two-pronged legal challenge over the policy, by the Together Declaration campaign and Workers of England Union.
The Government claims that vaccinations are “our best defence” against Covid, preventing infection and saving lives”, however, concerned ministers have held private talks with Tory MPs from the Covid Recovery Group about delaying or ditching the plan.
Sir Graham Brady, who chairs the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, said: “The experience of forcing care home workers to be vaccinated was tens of thousands left their jobs, piling extra pressure on NHS beds.
“We are about to repeat this folly by forcing NHS staff out of their jobs too. It’s time we took a more rational approach now we know that vaccines don’t stop transmission of Covid. A negative test provides much more reassurance.”
In October, Mr Javid brushed off pleas from professionals to “pause” the requirement for care staff to be fully jabbed, saying those who “can’t be bothered” should “get out and get another job”. Around 11,000 left in the two months before the deadline.
Mr Javid was confronted at Kings College Hospital, in south London, on Friday by consultant anaesthetist Steve James. He has had Covid but does not want the vaccine, and is therefore facing dismissal.
Mr James told him “the science isn’t strong enough” to justify a compulsory jab. He quoted research showing the vaccine suppressed Covid transmission of the Delta variant for only eight weeks and “is probably less” for Omicron.
A senior NHS official at a London trust said: “There are serious ethical questions about forcing people to have medical interventions against their will but the public needs to understand the practical implications too.
“We are looking at more than 100,000 people being sacked and some calculations have it at above 200,000.
“We would be permanently running on NHS minimum, just seeing people in A&E, not able to perform operations beyond emergency treatment ‑ a bit like we are now with the number on sick leave.”
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