North Yorkshire care boss: "Vaccines shouldn't be compulsory for staff"
Mike Padgham reckons social care workers should be encouraged and persuaded to take the vaccine instead.
The coronavirus vaccines should not be made mandatory for care home staff across North Yorkshire.
That is the view of Mike Padgham, who is Chair of the county's Independent Care Group.
It is as the Government's set to consider those plans due to concerns take up among care workers is only around 75 percent, compared to 95 among the general population.
Mike said:
"It's a difficult one. My own personal view is that the vaccination of social care staff should not be compulsory. I feel it should be done by gentle persuasion and encouragement. I think we do live in a free society and people have a right to choose what they have injected into their arms or not.
"Where do you stop? Will it be necessary for hospital staff to have it as well? You can't just single out care home staff on their own, but I do think we can increase the take up by the Government mounting a campaign that encourages people more to have it done, but no compulsory vaccination in my view."
Mike, who also runs St. Cecilia's in Scarborough, has also been reflecting on the past 12 months.
He added:
"It's been very tough particularly for those people who have obviously lost someone and for staff on the frontline who have put themselves in harm's way, so it's been a very difficult year because we've had a significant number of deaths in care homes over the last year. We've had a significant number of deaths in hospitals and in the community.
"Restrictions have been difficult especially in care homes for visiting because we've had visiting, then we've not had visiting, and then we had visiting but we had to stop it. Now we've got a single nominated visitor for a client so it's been very tough start-stop all round really. But I think the restrictions are necessary and we've got to take it and come out of the lockdown very gradually.
"We have lost some care homes in Scarborough because of the pandemic but I think people have coped admirably. I want to pay tribute to social care staff all over the borough for what they've done, putting themselves in harm's way, pulling out all the stops and being marvellous. I also want to pay tribute to the local authorities like North Yorkshire County Council, Scarborough Borough Council and the Clinical Commissioning Groups and the general public for helping and being patient with us.
"I hope that we can look forward brightly to the future, we can with the vaccinations and we've got to continue that programme. We want to enjoy a good summer and we want to come out of lockdown in my view gradually so we don't go backwards. Don't go hell for leather when the lockdown does ease because I fear that if we get it wrong, we might have problems coming up to winter."