Healthcare professionals are “frustrated” at the “inconsistent” approach in vaccinating NHS doctors and nurses at Covid-19 frontlines. They are particularly concerned about those staff from the black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds who are at high-risk and susceptible to the virus yet, not on priority lists. Instead in certain cases, NHS admin staff are being prioritised for the Covid-19 vaccine as opposed to those in contact with coronavirus patients. These concerns stem amid delays in the delivery of the Covid-19 vaccine and at a time the new coronavirus variant which is 70% more transmissible leaves these doctors at greater risk of contracting the infection.
Concerned at an inconsistent approach in vaccinating NHS staff, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA council chair, exclusively told Asian Voice, “Given the speed at which the new strain of Covid-19 is spreading, and the intense pressure on health services, it is vital that healthcare workers are vaccinated as quickly as possible. This is in line with the recommendations of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) which states that frontline health and social care staff should be vaccinated alongside all those aged 80 and over – and those staff at highest risk must be prioritised.
“It was deeply distressing that BAME health and care staff were disproportionately impacted during the first wave, with around 90% of all doctors who have died coming from BAME backgrounds – the NHS must protect them.
“We are therefore very concerned that we are seeing an erratic and inconsistent approach to vaccinating staff - including in some cases not prioritising staff who are most at risk, including those with underlying health conditions and of BAME backgrounds. While we understand that supplies of vaccines may be limited, renewed efforts must be put into protecting frontline staff in a systematic and prioritised way. Not only does the NHS owe it to its frontline staff to protect them when they are exposed to such a deadly disease, but if staff do contract the virus even mildly and have to take time off sick, they are unable to care for patients when services are at their most stretched. We cannot afford for doctors to become ill and end up with fewer medics able to work at this moment of unprecedented pressure.
A recent survey of 1,316 doctors by EveryDoctor revealed that almost two-thirds of medics who responded to the survey have not been vaccinated. Half of them noted that the delivery of the Covid-19 vaccine to the NHS frontline has been “ad hoc” and a third had no idea when they will be offered the jab. They fear the government’s decision to prioritise over-80s and care home staff above health workers has left them at risk of catching the disease. This is all the more concerning as the UK reported 41,385 new lab-confirmed cases on Monday, the highest figure yet for a single day. This means that there are now more coronavirus patients in England’s hospitals than there were during the peak of the first wave of the pandemic. Health officials in Wales and Scotland have also said they fear becoming overwhelmed.
BAPIO writes to JCVI urging re-consideration of the vaccination strategy
The British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO) has written a letter to Professor Andrew Pollard, Chair of JCVI, emphasising that government must not repeat errors from the first wave of Covid-19.
The letter, signed by BAPIO President Dr. Ramesh Mehta and Chairman Dr. JS Bamrah, “We understand that the advice from JCVI is that the vaccination programme will not target the BAME community specifically. The advice notice which we presume has been sent to all Trusts and CCGs wrongly states that ethnicity is not a risk for catching the virus. This is unfortunately against the existing evidence from our own study as well as other groups, that ethnicity is indeed a risk factor. It also flies in the face of the existing data on morbidity in BAME doctors and nurses for example. We know that over 90% of doctors and over 70% of nurses who died from the virus were of a BAME origin. Not all of them had existing co-morbidities.
“Given that BAME healthcare staff already feel undervalued we think it is important to get the messaging as well as the strategy right. Time and again there are failures in doing exactly that, and this again is a lost opportunity.
“So, we are writing to ask you to review the strategy and to ensure that ethnicity is taken into account when making decisions to vaccinate healthcare workers as well as the general population. We appreciate that you may not have personally been involved directly in the discussions due to your declared interest in the Oxford vaccine but as chairman of the committee we believe that you have an overriding responsibility to ensure that policy implementation in these matters which are of enormous importance to the public, especially the BAME community, are done so to protect the vulnerable community.”
DAUK writes to the Health Secretary
The findings, from the EveryDoctor survey, arrived as the UK’s medicines regulator prepares to approve the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. Leading doctors and NHS chiefs believe the second vaccine’s availability will enable a dramatic increase in the number of people who are vaccinated, including health professionals. In the meantime, the Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) has also written to the health secretary, Matt Hancock, over concerns that many frontline staff had not heard when they would be vaccinated. A poll by the group found that 70 percent had no idea when they would be protected. It comes as hospital staff has reported being told to ring GPs to ask if they had unused supplies of the vaccine.
Duranka Perera, an A&E physician, and treasurer at DAUK, said, “How is it right that hundreds of staff - BAME included – working in A&E, as paramedics, porters and domestics aren’t getting top priority and are having to ring around for spare doses? We cannot repeat the errors of the first wave when so many healthcare workers were lost in the line of duty.”
All these concerns arrive amid reports that NHS admin staff and those working in Boots pharmacies in north-west London were given the vaccine at the weekend, ahead of doctors and nurses dealing with Covid-19 patients daily. While the NHS trusts have been instructed to start preparing to use the overflow hospitals in the coming weeks bosses have reportedly failed to explain how they will be staffed. Most fundamentally healthcare professionals are concerned that institutional racism and mistakes made during the first wave of Covid-19 are not repeated.
