HEALTH Secretary Sajid Javid said “it’s our duty” to make sure patients are as safe as they can be.

Asked about compulsory jabs for NHS staff, he told Sky News: “This is about patient safety.

“We know that the vaccines work, we also know that patients in hospital, in care, these are some of the most vulnerable people in our society and if they are exposed to Covid it could be fatal, and I think it’s our duty to make sure that they are as safe as they can be.

“That’s why I announced this yesterday, so that from April next year, that if you work in the NHS or care, you will be required to be vaccinated and I want this to be a positive decision for everyone and to work with them.

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“There will be absolutely no scapegoating, no singling out, no shaming, but working with colleagues to support them in every way that we can to help them make this positive decision so they can protect themselves, their colleagues and, most of all, their patients.”

Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said compulsory jabs for NHS staff are “perfectly reasonable”.

He told Sky News: “This isn’t about perfection… we don’t live in a risk-free world.

“This virus, we’re learning about it all the time and it’s our duty to make sure that we’re doing everything we can, using all the tools that we have, to protect people.”

He added: “I’m not pretending, nobody is saying that you could have a 100% method of protecting them, but what you can do is reduce the chances of them becoming infected, and I think it is perfectly reasonable to say to everyone that works in health and care, please take this vaccine – some 93% have had at least one shot and that’s fantastic to see. There’s still around 100,000 we estimate in the NHS that have not.”

The coming months must see a focus on engagement and education of NHS workers around “misunderstandings or misapprehensions” about the coronavirus vaccine, a health leader has said.

Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers and deputy chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said a “majority of NHS leaders do understand and do support the mandation of the Covid vaccine”.

He added that the NHS is “grateful for that bit of extra time” before the April deadline for frontline workers to be double jabbed, as the service enters “absolutely our busiest period” with winter approaching.

He told Times Radio: “Clearly, what we need to focus on between now and April is talking to people, engaging with them.

“If there are misunderstandings or misapprehensions about the vaccine, reassuring people, educating them and that’s the job of the next four or five months.”

He added: “Any situation where we lose people just puts extra strain on services and I think as the Government acknowledged in its own impact assessment risks impacting on service delivery.

“We only have so many people and that may impact on what we can do, but as I’ve said, one step at a time. The issue now is to focus on engaging with people and trying to persuade them and explain to them the benefits to them and their families, as well as to their colleagues and patients, of having the vaccine.”

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