NHS STAFF WHO REFUSE JAB FACE MOVE FROM FRONTLINE
‘Option’ listed in NHS document on staff safety
HOSPITALS can consider redeploying staff who have refused to get the Covid-19 vaccine, a new NHS document suggests.
In the material, NHS England sets out how employers could consider moving workers who have declined the vaccine to a ‘less exposure-prone setting’.
The document sets out steps on how employers can ensure their staff who have declined the offer of the vaccine are safe at work.
Measures include making sure they have the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) and that they have had a mask fitting, if they need to use certain respirator masks.
NHS workers should also have awareness of infection control and undertaken the appropriate training, and that they have an up-to-date risk assessment.
The document, published on Friday and seen by the Health Service Journal (HSJ), adds: “If the risk to the member of staff, their colleagues or patients is still very significant, they could be moved into a less exposureprone setting as an option.
“These sensitive conversations may require input from local trade union representatives and HR.”
Earlier this month, the health service in England called for managers to have one-to-one conversations with staff who refused the Covid-19 vaccine before March 12.
An email seen by the
HSJ called on NHS trusts to ‘redouble our efforts in keeping each and every one of our staff safe’. The email from NHS England’s chief people officer Prerana Issar said: “As a result of your continued hard work we have seen an uptick in staff vaccination numbers, with nine out of (10) eligible staff now vaccinated.”
She added: “There are, however, a number of staff who have declined the first dose of the vaccine.”
The latest figures from NHS England show that, as of March 7, an estimated 94.8 per cent of frontline health care workers in NHS Trusts in England had received at least one dose of a Covid-19 jab.
Up to February 1, the vaccination hub at the Royal Stoke had delivered 22,974 vaccines, including 11,467 first doses to to hospital staff, and 1,434 second doses.
The remaining doses were provided to patients and other care and health workers.
While 76 per cent of UHNM staff have received a vaccine at the Royal Stoke hub, many more have received jabs at other venues – although managers do not know exactly how many of their workers remain unvaccinated.
Managers are in the process of asking staff.
Speaking at last week’s UHNM board meeting, chief executive Tracy Bullock, left, said that the trust would not take any action against unvaccinated staff until it was nationally mandated.
She said: “All we can do is make sure that they understand the benefits of it, why it’s important.”
VACCINE: Nine out of 10 NHS workers have had the covid jab.
COUNCILLORS are calling for a controversial landfill site’s permit to be suspended – until its long-running odour problem is resolved.
This is one of 40 recommendations in a newly-published scrutiny report into Walleys Quarry, written by a panel of elected members at Newcastle Borough Council.
The panel has spent more than a year looking into complaints about the Silverdale landfill – mostly about the smell of hydrogen sulphide – hearing from residents, campaigners, council officers and the Environment Agency (EA), the main regulator.
But Red Industries, the company that operates the Cemetery Road site, did not take part in the review.
The final report, to be discussed at a special full council meeting tomorrow, includes recommendations to various bodies, including Red Industries, the EA, and the borough council itself.
One is for the EA to suspend the permit and ‘prohibit the importation of waste until source of odour has been identified and mitigated’.
But shortly before the report was published, Red Industries curtailed most landfill operations at Walleys Quarry to allow capping work to be accelerated, in response to ‘community concerns’. It is unclear how long this will last.
The report also calls for the
EA to carry out improved monitoring and enforcement of the site’s emissions, while recommending the borough council undertakes ‘odour nuisance investigations’.
Red Industries, meanwhile, is asked to ‘publicly acknowledge the extent of public concern’ over the landfill site, and provide real-time air pollution monitoring, accessible by the public, among other recommendations.
Working group members also want the organisations to lobby
the Government for a change in national planning policy in relation to landfill sites. Councillor Andrew Fear, below, who chaired the working group, said it had been ‘extraordinary’ due to the coronavirus and the restrictions it brought with it.
The scrutiny process has now ended, more than six months after the review restarted in August. Mr Fear said during that time, ‘the concerns in the community have grown and grown and the number of complaints has risen massively’. He said the overriding concern ‘has been the complaint of foul odour, and residents’ concerns about the impact on their health and quality of life’.
The use of Zoom and virtual meetings meant ‘many residents’ had taken part in process, which was ‘vitally important’, said Mr Fear.
The report states there had been contact between Red Industries and the council over the review since December 2019. The company had concerns over the working group’s impartiality, and submitted a formal complaint to the authority.
In February, Red Industries agreed to submit its response by March 15, but the council insisted on ending the review on February 26.
The final report details the history of the landfill site, from its origins as a clay pit and the initial granting of a landfill permit in 2005, to the recent surge in odour complaints.
While it also refers to complaints relating to vehicle movements, dust and gulls, the report concludes that odour is ‘by far the biggest issue’ and needs to be addressed.
The report states: “It is noted that the source of the odour has not been confirmed by either the EA or Red, however it is noted that there are no significant alternative sources of odour presented to the group.
“The group consider that the use of scientific instrumentation should be used for the assessment of odour and specific air pollution limits should be detailed within the EA permit conditions, thereby making it more enforceable.
“Odour is adversely affecting a wide community, the nature, duration, extent and exact chemical compounds in the odour has not been established, but it is clear there is a regular and persistent source of odour, which needs to be addressed.”
A Red Industries statement said: “We are in receipt of the recommendations, which includes an extensive capping operation, which is already underway. We work with local community members including residents and councillors to share information and we are exploring the best way of ensuring this is seen by the largest number of people. The site is regularly inspected and monitored by the Environment Agency and other independent experts.”
THE parents of a poorly baby have told how their son will be on medication for the rest of his life after he was born with a hole in the heart.
Mum Cathleen Gibney had only gone to the Royal Stoke University Hospital for a routine 33-week scan when medics raised the alarm.
They rushed Cathleen in for emergency surgery and little Ruben Gibney came into the world. But he was born with half-a-heart and a hole in the heart and was transferred to Birmingham Children’s Hospital on November 27.
Now the 15-week-old tot remains in a ‘stable’ condition in hospital after spending just six weeks at his Tunstall home since his birth.
Dad Mark, aged 36, said: “Cathleen went in for a routine 33-week scan and then I got a phone call from the midwife an hour later saying that my wife had gone in for emergency surgery because they weren’t happy with the baby’s heart rate.
“They got him out and she did all the recovery at the Royal Stoke. It got to about 10.30pm that night and they decided to look at transferring him to Birmingham Children’s Hospital where it was revealed he was born with half a heart.
“His complete left side hasn’t developed. His top left ventricles have not developed. His lower ventricle hasn’t developed. The tubes that come off that side of the heart don’t quite reach the other side of the heart.
“We didn’t know until he was born, it wasn’t picked up on any of the scans. We first found out when we got taken into a room two days in.
“We got taken into a room and they gave us the options. One was to bring him home on palliative care. But we thought we could not do that because we have other kids at home.” Ruben underwent surgery just three days before Christmas and was discharged on January 7. But he was readmitted to the Royal Stoke in mid-february, transferred back to Birmingham, and underwent a four-hour operation last week.
Mark added: “He is under consultants at Birmingham and we go from there. While he has a heartbeat he is fighting and that’s the mentality we have got.” The family have launched an online fund-raising appeal to try to help with the costs of travelling between Tunstall and Birmingham. Any leftover cash will be donated to the intensive care unit at the children’s hospital. Mark added: “We can’t get any help at all with transport from the hospital. They will pay for a helicopter but won’t reimburse fuel or a taxi to and from the hospital. The support we have had is amazing.”
I FEEL so sorry for the pub and hospitality trade.
In this pandemic the whole industry was and still is the scapegoat for covid cases.
They were the safest places to go with all of the covid rules and I feel safer working in a hospitality environment than I do going shopping.
DF MILNER BLURTON