How many NHS workers haven't been vaccinated in England yet?

Ross McGuinness
A nurse prepares a dose the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine at a vaccination centre in Derby, central England on September 20, 2021. - Frontline health and social care workers, older people and the clinically vulnerable in Britain started on Monday to receive a booster jab against Covid 19. (Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP) (Photo by PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)
Frontline NHS England staff must be vaccinated against coronavirus, the government has confirmed. (AFP via Getty Images) (PAUL ELLIS via Getty Images)

Some 103,000 NHS workers in England have not had a coronavirus vaccine, it has emerged.

Sajid Javid revealed the figure as he announced that COVID jabs will be compulsory for frontline health workers in England.

The health secretary said a deadline of 1 April is expected to be set to give remaining staff time to get both their vaccine doses.

There are fears the move could leave to staff shortages at hospitals.

Watch: COVID jabs to be compulsory for NHS England staff, says health secretary

Javid said 93% of NHS staff in England have now had a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 90% have had two jabs.

Read more: Cambridge hospital warns it is 'ceasing to function' amid spike in COVID

Across the UK, 87.4% of people aged 12 and over have had a first dose, while 79.7% have had two doses, according to the latest government figures.

May Parsons, the nurse who administered the first coronavirus vaccine in December last year, receives her booster jab at University Hospital Coventry, Warwickshire. Picture date: Friday September 24, 2021.
May Parsons, right, the nurse who administered the first coronavirus vaccine in December last year, receives her booster jab at University Hospital Coventry, Warwickshire, in September. (PA) (PA)

In figures published last month, covering the period up to 30 September, NHS England revealed there are striking differences between regions when it comes to vaccine take-up among its staff in England.

There were two NHS trusts - Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust and Barts Health NHS Trust in London - where one in five workers were not fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

There were 16 trusts in England, all of them in London or Birmingham, where at least one in six members of staff are not fully vaccinated.

NHS England trusts with lowest vaccination rate among staff:

1. Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust – 79.52%

2. Barts Health NHS Trust – 79.68%

3. North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust – 80.17%

4. Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust – 80.28%

5. Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust – 80.35%

NHS England trusts with highest vaccination rate among staff:

1. Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust – 94.40%

2. West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust – 94.41%

3. Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust – 94.54%

4. Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust – 94.57%

5. Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust – 94.76%

Announcing that vaccines would be mandatory for NHS England staff in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Javid said: “The take-up throughout the NHS in England is 93% of the first dose, 90% of two doses, and that does leave – the latest number I have – 103,000 people in the NHS, that work for the NHS, that are unvaccinated, so not even one jab.

“It’s hard to know what portion of that number will take up the offer of vaccination.”

Care home workers in England have already been told they must be fully vaccinated by the deadline of this Thursday.

Earlier on Tuesday, NHS Providers chief executive Chris Hopson warned that the NHS and the social care sector losing “significant numbers of staff” would be a “real problem”.

Nurse Eleanor Pinkerton prepares a coronavirus vaccine to be given to a health and care staff member at the NHS Louisa Jordan Hospital in Glasgow, as part of a mass vaccination drive by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Picture date: Saturday January 23, 2021.
NHS workers in England will have to be fully vaccinated by next spring, the government says. (PA) (PA)

He said: “The problem for both social care and the NHS is we run these systems incredibly hot on very, very fine margins.

“Both of us have got around 90 to 100,000 vacancies.

Read more: Thousands of double vaccinated over 70s have died in the last 4 weeks

“We are completely reliant on our staff to work extra shifts in order to do the work that needs to be done.

“So losing significant numbers of staff, particularly given the pressure that both of the systems are under at the moment, is a real, real problem.”

Last month, the British Medical Association (BMA) said the threat that staff could lose their jobs if they do not get a COVID-19 vaccine is “of grave concern”.

Watch: NHS care worker in tears after losing job because she refused COVID vaccine

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