Management of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) is working on how it can ramp up the number of staff being vaccinated against coronavirus (COVID-19), including policies that could make it a requirement in order to work there.
With vaccination levels among staff, especially nurses, not high enough by management’s wishes, QEH executive chairman Juliette Bynoe-Sutherland said they were reviewing documentation on the policy, but made it clear that no decision had been made.
However, she noted that a precedent already existed where staff were required to take several vaccines and it was just a matter of deciding if the COVID-19 jab would be added to the must-have list.
Reiterating this was just one of the options on the table, Bynoe-Sutherland said that in the interim, the system was solely dependent on the strict use of personal protective equipment to mitigate any further outbreaks within the hospital.
“We already have a policy like that. In order to work at the hospital, you must have certain vaccinations such as hepatitis and others, so that is a policy that is pretty standard for health care workers. The question now becomes if we are going to include COVID-19 as one of those pre-requisites and that is what we are working on. Literally as we speak, I am just reading some documentation on it,” she told the Sunday Sun. (CLM)
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