NHS medics are putting patients’ lives at risk by refusing flu jabs

TWO-THIRDS of doctors and nurses at some hospitals have ignored official pleas to get themselves vaccinated against flu this winter, risking the lives of vulnerable patients.

Last week, senior doctors warned that not enough NHS workers are having the jab.

Now an official report shows shockingly low staff vaccination rates at some of the country’s biggest and busiest hospitals.

Only 33.7 per cent of frontline staff at King’s College Hospital in South London – which houses one of the capital’s largest A&E departments – have received the jab this winter. The figure is 38.3 per cent at nearby Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Trust.

Hospitals in Brighton, Essex, Northumbria, Cornwall, Harrogate, Wolverhampton, Salisbury and Hertfordshire also have less than half of their staff vaccinated.

Overall, fewer than half of frontline workers have been inoculated against flu at 18 hospital trusts across England, which together run 55 hospitals.

Unvaccinated healthcare workers are more likely to catch the bug and pass it to patients than staff who have the jab.

Last night, leading flu expert Professor John Oxford told The Mail on Sunday that NHS staff who refused vaccination risked killing their own patients. ‘Staff who have ill children at home come into work and they give the virus to an old person and kill the person,’ he said.

Calling on them to ‘set an example’, he added: ‘It doesn’t make public health sense [for staff] not to be vaccinated.’

His comments come a week after the outgoing NHS England medical director, Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, called for ‘a serious debate’ about compulsory flu jabs for NHS staff. ‘Flu is a double whammy, increasing the number of patients and putting staff out of action,’ he said.

An NHS England spokesman said: ‘Uptake of the flu vaccination among frontline staff is at record levels.’