UK healthcare workers don’t know when to get COVID-19 vaccine

• The British government has announced that it will vaccinate all health and social workers by February 15.
• It’s getting closer, and many workers still don’t know when they get hit.
• Five frontline workers have spoken to Insider about being left in limbo.
• Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.

Healthcare workers in the UK are increasingly frustrated with not knowing when they will receive their first COVID-19 vaccine.

This includes test center workers and medical students who don’t know where they stand on the priority list and fear falling through the cracks.

The UK government has said its “top priority” is to ensure that the 15 million people in its most-at-risk categories have access to their first dose by February 15.

In addition to those who are vulnerable due to their age and health, this group also includes workers in housing, health and social services, residents of nursing homes and staff who work with them being the highest priority.

This followed guidance from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI), an independent medical body, which advised the government to prioritize the protection of health and social care workers while preventing deaths due to COVID-19. The government is working to get the vaccine out quickly and has a risky and untested strategy in place of giving as many first doses as possible by delaying when people will get their second injection.

But frontline workers, including some who work for the NHS, told Insider they have yet to be contacted about their first dose and need to treat patients despite not being not themselves protected.

In one case, medical students on internship in hospitals – some of them in COVID-19 wards – were asked to cancel their vaccination appointments so staff could get vaccinated first.

It comes as more and more healthcare workers are testing positive for COVID-19.

Earlier this month, the British Medical Association (BMA) reported that more than 46,000 hospital staff were sick with COVID-19, according to The Guardian. And in some hospitals, more than one in seven staff are sick, Dr Tom Dolphin, an anesthesia consultant in London, told Insider’s Kate Duffy.

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This means that healthcare workers may have to treat more patients than usual or work longer hours. A BMA survey showed that two-thirds of respondents were regularly required to work overtime during the pandemic and nearly half said their work caused or exacerbated emotional distress, depression, anxiety and others. mental health problems.

The BMA is urging the government to ensure that all frontline staff receive the vaccine as soon as possible, both for their own protection and to ease the wider burden on NHS staff needing to self-isolate. To keep services afloat, all healthcare workers must be vaccinated by the end of January, Dolphin added.

But people are falling through the cracks. As of January 11, 43% of paramedics and hospitals in London – including nurses, administrative staff and cleaners – had not received a COVID-19 vaccine, according to a GMB Union study, according to The Independent.

The NHS did not respond to Insider’s request for comment. The Department of Health and Welfare referred Insider to the NHS when asked to comment.

A young doctor, a medical student intern at the hospital, a testing center assistant, a dental administrator and a home caregiver spoke to Insider about their experiences.

The five healthcare workers spoke to Insider on condition of confidentiality, and their names have been changed for this article.

The junior doctor

“Myself and many other doctors feel extremely frustrated by the mismatch between the government’s announcements and the reality of what is really going on in our hospitals,” said Rosie, a young doctor at a major hospital in Leeds. , told Insider. She works in intensive care units and looks after dozens of patients every week.

There is a regional disparity in the government’s roll-out of the vaccine to NHS staff, she added.

“I have colleagues who work in a different part of the country who have already received two doses of the vaccine while older colleagues I work with have not.”

She doesn’t blame the trust of the hospital she works for, however.

“Despite government guidelines for vaccine implementation and cluster prioritization, there is no strategy to ensure its deployment equally,” she said.

Read more: UK hospital system on the brink of collapse, forcing overworked staff to postpone cancer treatments, stretch oxygen supplies and put themselves at risk of catching COVID-19

“It feels like the government has left the hospital trusts to scramble to muster the staff and resources to distribute the immunization themselves – which is no small feat given the overwhelming number of staff. of the NHS working on the front lines. “

As a result, the trusts deliver vaccines to their staff at different rates, affected by issues related to vaccine supply, storage and administration, Rosie said.

“I think the majority of hospitals are doing their best to manage the ever-changing COVID-19 environment,” she said. “The frustration for me is the lack of support from the government.”

The student doctor

Megan, a medical internship student, told Insider she didn’t know where she was on the government’s priority list. She works full time and changes between three different hospitals most weeks, and is in a different ward almost every day. This includes medical and surgical services, theaters, the intensive care unit and clinics.

“It’s like we are staff but not staff and sometimes forgotten,” Megan said. She is not an NHS worker as she does not have an employee number or paycheck meaning she is not in the same priority bracket as them, but she works in hospitals of the NHS alongside NHS doctors.

“I have the feeling that as medical students we are often overlooked because we are not considered full staff, but we are dealing with full-time patients and we move around a lot,” he said. she told Insider.

Daniel Leaf-Olivas / AFP via Getty Images

One of Megan’s friends who is also on an internship as a medical student was due to get the shot this week, but was turned down from her appointment for not being a staff member. This despite receiving an email inviting him to take the photo.

In an email seen by Insider, Megan’s friend has since been told that staff need to get their shots before medical students, and if they have an appointment, they should cancel it – including the students. doctors working on COVID-19 services.

The test center assistant

Connor, meanwhile, works as a general assistant at a large COVID-19 testing center in the north of England. The role is to teach people how to use and process a test, in addition to occasionally cleaning up the site. He is not employed by the NHS and instead works for a private agency to which the UK government has outsourced testing contracts.

“We haven’t heard anything about the vaccine and I don’t think we’ll get them,” Connor told Insider, adding that he didn’t think he was placed in one of the highest priority cohorts.

Read more: UK hospitals transfer COVID-19 patients to hotel due to bed shortage

“I think it’s because we’re all on zero-hour contracts so we’re not seen as a priority, despite some people working more than 30 hours a week. It feels like we don’t care. not from us. “

“Everyone who works there puts themselves at risk every time they enter, handling items that we know are infected with COVID-19. It’s disheartening and anger induces how much we have been neglected.

Dental administrator

Lily is a receptionist and administrator in an NHS dental practice. In addition to performing administrative tasks such as planning and filing, Lily is also responsible for screening for COVID-19 symptoms and taking temperatures.

Lily’s workplace was only told last week that her staff would be given priority for vaccination, having previously heard that dentists and support staff don’t count as healthcare workers.

“We were told our cabinet would be contacted to arrange vaccines, but we don’t have a plan or timeline for that yet,” she told Insider.

Read more: A quarter of New York City’s vaccines are for people who don’t live there. Some don’t even work in the city.

Despite this lack of clarity, the government is urging dental offices to see as many patients as possible now – including elective and routine treatments, Lily told Insider.

“It’s really frustrating to be told to do all of this by the same people dragging their feet to get us vaccinated,” she said.

The home caregiver

Paige, meanwhile, is a home help for a private business. Her job is to visit elderly clients in their homes for care, including personal care and dementia.

Paige said her company has contacted the appropriate authorities to gain access to the vaccine “several times,” but has not yet been notified of when staff will be able to get the vaccine.

Read more: London Mayor Sadiq Khan declares ‘major incident’ as city hospitals overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients

“Even some of my clients haven’t heard of when they’ll get the vaccine,” she said, noting that some of them spent Christmas alone with only visits from their caregivers for their own. keep company.

“Personally, I think the government has let down a lot of people,” she told Insider. “It’s embarrassing and it’s just how bad the whole pandemic has gone in this country with all the decision reversals and pockets that we have seen, from personal protective equipment offers to free school meals. “