Foreign NHS workers could be denied Covid vaccine in England

Foreign NHS workers treating Covid patients are at risk of being denied vaccinations because of internal guidelines about who can receive the jab, the Guardian has learned.

Documents circulated among staff at one leading hospital show vaccinators have been told they must not immunise anyone without an NHS number.

A senior source at the NHS trust said the instruction was disproportionately likely to affect foreign nurses and people from a black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) background who have not registered with a GP. “We’re basically being told to turn away ethnic minorities and foreigners, who are fundamental to delivery of healthcare in this country,” the source said.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said that having an NHS number should never be a precondition for the coronavirus jab. This is understood to be echoed by NHS England.

The issue has arisen due to the national immunisation vaccination system (NIVS), which the NHS uses to record details of medical staff who have been immunised.

Quick guide Who in the UK will get the new Covid-19 vaccine first?

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The government’s joint committee on vaccination and immunisation has published a list of groups of people who will be prioritised to receive a vaccine for Covid-19 in the UK. The list is:

1 All those 80 years of age and over and health and social care workers.

2 All those 75 and over.

3 All those 70 and over.

4 All those 65 and over.

5 Adults under 65 at high at risk of serious disease and mortality from Covid-19.

6 Adults under 65 at moderate risk of at risk of serious disease and mortality from Covid-19.

7 All those 60 and over.

8 All those 55 and over.

9 All those 50 and over.

10 Rest of the population.

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Details cannot be uploaded without an NHS number, according to official instructions on how to use NIVS issued by NHS Digital and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

The document says that where staff do not have an NHS number “the vaccine should not be given”.

One email sent to the hospital explicitly states that overseas nurses without NHS numbers should not be vaccinated, although those from the “devolved nations” – Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – can be recorded on paper.

The Guardian understands that some hospitals are working around the issue to ensure staff without NHS numbers are also being vaccinated but there are fears individuals could fall through the cracks.

Staff at one hospital set up a separate system to vaccinate workers with and without NHS numbers – but were later advised not to do so and to follow the NIVS protocol instead.

“We’ve decided that’s wrong,” said the source. “We’re vaccinating them anyway, then we’re asking them to register afterwards and we’ll put them on the system retrospectively,” the source said.