Patient safety and the right of the sick to reject care from unvaccinated staff

The question of whether to impose a policy requiring mandatory vaccination for NHS staff has raised countless ethical and practical considerations, but with many healthcare workers still unvaccinated and the Government set for a U-turn over mandatory Covid jabs for NHS staff in England, has enough thought been given to the perspective of patients?

Various legal experts and health groups have argued that while doctors and nurses can reject the offer of vaccination, patients should also have the right to refuse treatment from a healthcare worker who is not jabbed, instead requesting that their care is placed in the hands of someone who is protected.

With the February deadline pushed back, could patients start to grow weary of staff who have not been vaccinated? Will they feel as though the chance for refuseniks to get jabbed has come and gone, and that it is therefore justified that they are stripped of their right to deliver treatment?

“Patients have a right to safe care, so it’s reasonable for patients to expect any health or social care professional caring for them to have had a Covid-19 vaccine,” says Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patients Association.

Most patients may not be overly concerned about the vaccination status of those caring for them, but in a world in which we’re expected to live alongside the threat posed by Covid, there are undoubtedly certain groups who will be more invested in these matters.

“A person who is ‘vulnerable’ by way of disability or chronic illness (eg immunocompromised) may well have an argument under the Equality Act that the NHS failing to provide vaccinated staff to them constitutes disability-based discrimination,” says one barrister who specialises in mental health capacity law.

After all, these individuals are most at risk from COVID-19 – and will be for years to come. Clinically vulnerable people who do find themselves in hospital for whatever reason will know that a Sars-CoV-2 infection could further exacerbate their condition, or endanger their lives.

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Source: The Independent, 30 January 2022