1,000 staff lost ... the price one major hospital could be paying

MANDATORY vaccination could see more than 1,000 staff lost at the hospital where the Health Secretary was confronted by a doctor unwilling to be jabbed.

During a visit to London’s King’s College Hospital on Friday Sajid Javid had an awkward conversation with consultant anaesthetist Steve James, who refuses to be vaccinated.

Yesterday the hospital’s chief executive, Clive Kay, admitted he was ‘worried’ about staffing levels, as 10 per cent of his staff are unjabbed.

As there are around 14,000 workers at the site in Denmark Hill, south-east London, that could mean more than 1,000 being lost.

They will either lose their jobs or be redeployed when jabs for NHS staff who have contact with patients become mandatory by April 1. Dr Kay told the BBC’s Sunday Morning politics show his job was to ‘encourage our staff to be vaccinated’ and that more were coming forward.

But he worried about the impact of losing workers, adding: ‘My job is to worry – to worry about everything in relation to whether we have enough staff here to provide care for patients safely.’

In November, officials expected as many as 73,000 unvaccinated NHS staff across England to refuse to comply before the ‘no jab, no job’ law comes into force.

Vaccination became mandatory for those working in care homes on November 11, with up to 57,000 staff having lost their jobs as a result.

Mr Javid stood firm when faced by Dr James, who told the Health Secretary the science was not ‘strong enough’ to support jabs. Dr James, who thinks he has had Covid, yesterday told Radio 4’s Broadcasting House: ‘Maybe there are some issues with vaccination that will arise, and I didn’t feel there was a rush to go out and take it.’

Around 70 per cent of patients in intensive care are unvaccinated, Mr Javid said last week – despite them making up only 10 per cent of the population.

Having two doses and a booster is vital to provide 88 per cent protection against hospitalisation from Omicron, the UK Health Security Agency says.

But Dr James said that an entire team of more than 40 midwives could be lost from a single hospital due to jabs being made mandatory.

The consultant also said he had seen no one of his age and health level in intensive care with Covid. His opinions were yesterday criticised by the former vaccine minister and current Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi.

Mr Zahawi told Times Radio: ‘I hope he talks to his colleagues who are epidemiologists because I’m sure the epidemiologist will be able to explain to him why vaccines actually do have an impact on infection and transmission.’

When the potential loss of more than 1,000 workers was put to him, Dr Kay called the figure an ‘extreme position’, saying more staff were being jabbed, but confirmed the staff total was around 14,000.

‘My job is to worry’