Care home workers who are not prepared to get the Covid vaccine should “get out and get another job”, Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said.
Mr Javid brushed off appeals from providers to “pause” the legal requirement for staff in England to be fully vaccinated, amid warnings some homes will be unable to cope if workers are forced to leave.
Nadra Ahmed, chair of the National Care Association, has urged the Government to put back the November 11 deadline for staff to have both jabs, saying it will have a knock-on effect on the NHS if homes have to reduce resident numbers.
But in an uncompromising message to staff, Mr Javid said they should not be working in the sector if they are not prepared to be vaccinated.
He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “If you want to work in a care home you are working with some of the most vulnerable people in our country and if you cannot be bothered to go and get vaccinated, then get out and go and get another job.
“If you want to look after them, if you want to cook for them, if you want to feed them, if you want to put them to bed, then you should get vaccinated.
“If you are not going to get vaccinated then why are you working in care?
“If you think about your elderly relatives you might have in care homes, and the idea that someone wants to look after them and they don’t want to take a perfectly safe and effective vaccine that has been approved by our regulators, been used all over the world, because somehow they have got some objection to this vaccine, then really, honestly, they shouldn’t be in our care homes.
Read more: Get the jab or get another job, front man for fascism Javid callously tells care home staff
