Home care worker says she'll quit care sector rather than take Covid jab

An employee who left her care home role to start a home care job because she did not want to have the Covid vaccine, says she’s ready to quit the care sector altogether if compulsory vaccination for home care workers is introduced in April 2022.

The ex-care home nurse decided to take a home care job, after the government introduced compulsory vaccination for care home staff from 11 November – which effectively banned unvaccinated workers from care homes.

Her new home care role began shortly before the government introduced a compulsory vaccine rule for home care workers and NHS staff, which requires them to be vaccinated by next April in order to keep their jobs.

'I will never have the vaccine'

“I was prepared not to work if that meant I didn’t have to take the vaccine”, the home care worker, who wishes to remain anonymous told iNews.

“I will never have the vaccine. Never. Categorically.”

The nurse from Birmingham has over 40 years experience and says she took a £11-an-hour pay cut to start her new home care job.

Referring to the government’s decision to introduce the compulsory vaccination rule for home care workers and the NHS from April 2022, she said: “If that’s the case, [I] will be finishing work.

“It hasn’t been tested for long enough… it’s just been rushed through and people are feeling coerced into taking the vaccines. We should have freedom of choice.

“I think it should be a personal choice, more and more our human rights are being eroded day by day.”

'Contrary to government's levelling up agenda'

Karolina Gerlich, chief executive of The Care Workers’ Charity, said of the November 11 vaccination deadline for care homes and the April 2022 deadline for home care workers: “For many, after a traumatic and exhausting 18 months - the enforcement by the Government of this legislation was the final straw, and has left care staff feeling that their views and concerns have not being respected or heard.

“It has also meant [care] providers are left desperately trying to fill gaps in their rotas, with fewer and fewer people to fill them.

“There is no doubt that homecare and wider care settings, as well as the NHS will experience the same devastating workforce shortages once this extension of the current damaging policy is introduced.”

Kari Gerstheimer, chief executive of Access Social Care, a charity that provides free legal advice to people with social care needs, said: "We are extremely concerned about what compulsory vaccinations will do to a workforce that is already so depleted. Staff shortages have been going on for years, but recently the situation has become acute.

"We know from ONS data that people in the most deprived areas are three times more likely to report vaccine hesitancy than those in the least deprived. So, we can predict that these areas - which tend to have the highest demand for care - will see more care staff switching to different jobs. Contrary to the government's own levelling up agenda, compulsory vaccinations will deepen health inequalities between regions which are already so stark."