UKHCA's CEO Dr Jane Townson said:
UKHCA strongly supports vaccination of the homecare workforce and we lobbied hard, right from the beginning, to enable ease of access to vaccinations. We are really pleased that 81.7% of homecare workers have had their first vaccine, and 69.4% have had their second dose. Our concern is that vaccination as a condition of deployment will likely result in a substantial loss of the workforce, potentially at least 20 per cent. Right now, we are experiencing the most extreme challenges in recruitment and retention in history, at a time of rising demand for homecare. We feel it's very important to balance the mitigated risk of infection with the risk of unavailability of care at home for highly dependent older and disabled people. Vaccination was only ever part of the infection prevention and control measures and recent data suggest that vaccinated people may be able to spread the delta variant of COVID-19 as readily as unvaccinated people. We continue to follow guidelines on PPE, regular testing, ventilation, cleaning and other IPC measures. Our belief is that persuasion will be more effective than compulsion at encouraging vaccination without losing vital workforce capacity.
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Notes for Editors
1. United Kingdom Homecare Association (UKHCA) is the professional association for more than 2,300 domiciliary care providers in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
2. As a member-led professional association, UKHCA's purpose is to enable a strong, sustainable, innovative and person-led homecare sector to flourish. We represent and support our members so that people can live well and independently at home. UKHCA's members agree to abide by the Association's Code of Practice, which can be found at www.ukhca.co.uk/codeofpractice.aspx.
3. For further information please contact:
United Kingdom Homecare Association Ltd
Sutton Business Centre, Restmor Way, Wallington, SM6 7AH
Telephone: 020 8661 8165
Mobile: 07393 012 113
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.ukhca.co.uk
Twitter: @ukhca
Registered in England, No. 3083104.
