Tag Archives: Covid

Vaccination and health & care staff

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The question of whether all front-line NHS workers and other care staff should be vaccinated against Covid 19 has yet to be resolved.

More than two and a half thousand people have died from Coronavirus in Northern Ireland since the start of the pandemic, over 150 of them in the past month.

While it is not possible to legislate for compulsory vaccination, it is possible to ensure a duty of care to patients and clients.  Un-vaccinated staff pose an infection threat, and worse, to those they are caring for and to those who work with them.

There will be some staff who, for a number of reasons, cannot or will not accept the vaccine and they have a right to do so. However, with rights come responsibilities.

There may always be people who reject or debunk the science, but in the face of an ongoing pandemic, a rising death toll and a health and care service pushed to its limits and beyond, the priority has to be the safety and well-being of patients, clients and staff.

That cannot be afforded if unvaccinated staff form part of the front line.

Don’t wait – Get the Jab Done now

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Covid kills. It can also make you very ill. You might need to be admitted to hospital. You might even end up in Intensive Care.

If you get it, you could also pass it on to others – family, friends, mates. You don’t want to do that.

Everyone who gets protection from the coronavirus by getting a vaccination helps get us all that bit closer to normal life.

Even if you’ve been unlucky enough to have had Covid 19 already, you should still get the vaccine.  It will help you and it will help others

The sooner you get vaccinated, the sooner you are protected, the sooner we can all feel safer. Don’t wait.

The importance of the NHS

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Health and social care staff, and all those who work in the NHS here, have been congratulated by the Party’s spokesperson in Newry and Armagh, Nicola Campbell.

“More than half a million people here have received their first Coronavirus vaccination jab and thousands more will be vaccinated by the end of July”, Nicola said.

“Although we are not out of the woods yet, frontline health and social care staff, against all the odds, have held the line against the pandemic and have helped to ensure to that we are on course for the return of some sort of normality”, she added

“There can be no argument but that these successes have been achieved by virtue by the dedication and professionalism of all those involved in the planning and delivery of the vaccination programme and in the treatment and care of Covid positive patients.

Nor can there be any doubt that this was made possible by a centrally funded, centrally planned health and social care service”, Nicola said.

“We would not be where we are today if our health and care relied on private medical insurance or privatised hospitals”.

“For now, and for the future, the lessons are clear and telling”, said Nicola. “The NHS must be prioritised, strengthened and properly funded. The staff who deliver its services must be supported, developed and paid the wages they deserve. It’s not just the NHS that’s unsafe in private hands – its also the elderly, the vulnerable, the ill and all those in need.

“When we eventually emerge from this pandemic those are the priorities and the principles that need to be secured in the face of any attempts to turn a public health service into a private one under the guise of reform and restructuring“, “Nicola concluded.