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Agency nursing staff missing out on vaccine |
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One in three agency nurses have not yet had their covid-19 vaccination, a Royal College of Nursing survey has revealed, prompting the nurses’ union to warn key staff are ‘slipping through the net’.
The UK-wide survey of over 24,000 nurses found two in five agency nursing staff and one in four temporary staff had not yet received the vaccine, compared to one in eight hospital workers.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) says more support is needed for health and care workers outside of the NHS, many of whom work in social care in care homes or visiting people in their own homes.
In Scotland, where just over 2,400 nursing staff responded to the survey, all frontline health and social care workers fall in the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s priority group 2 and were to have received their first vaccine dose by the 5th February.
According to the survey results, 15% of all nursing staff in the UK are yet to be vaccinated, and of those who have not yet been offered the vaccine, 70% work in non-NHS settings.
Dame Donna Kinnair, Chief Executive and General Secretary of the RCN said: “Temporary and agency staff work in our communities and hospitals, with patients and the public – and they face the same level of risk as their NHS colleagues.
“Every effort must be made to reach all nursing staff to ensure the protection of patients and vulnerable people.
“The JCVI guidance is clear that the covid-19 vaccine should be available to all health and social care staff. This is irrespective of where they are employed, including agency staff and those employed in the independent sectors.
“Employers are ultimately responsible for ensuring all their staff are able to access the vaccine. But the government must intervene now, as our members have proven this is clearly not the case.”
A Scottish government spokesperson said: “We are working hard with all partners to get frontline health and social care staff vaccinated as quickly as possible.
“Scotland’s covid-19 vaccination programme is now delivering ahead of our expectations, thanks to the enormous efforts of our vaccination teams.
“Our aim is to vaccinate as many people as possible with both their first and second doses. The vaccine deployment plan was predicated on an uptake of at least 80% in each cohort.”
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