Camden Council plans to increase vaccination uptake among care home workers

Camden Council has said it plans to do more to increase vaccination uptake among care home workers in the borough after a report revealed some were refusing jabs.

At a meeting of the Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday 7 January, director of health and wellbeing Kirsten Watters said that pushing for vaccinations was a key way to protect public health during the winter months.

But amid a cold snap and “much higher levels of flu” in the capital, there are concerns that efforts to control viral infections may have been hindered by vaccine hesitancy in care homes.

Most care home staff do not live in the borough and have to “spend time commuting before and after long shifts”. To improve the take up of jabs the UCLH immunisation team, adult social care commissioners and the Camden Health Bus team had added additional vaccination sessions located closer to care homes.

Watters’ latest report stated that although 2024 had seen 22 more vaccines given to care home workers, some were still declining the offer — prompting the council’s plans to engage more staff this year.

Cllr Larraine Revah, chair of the committee, pressed the director for more detail on these measures, to which Watters explained that it ranged from training for staff to having conversations with the more “vaccine-hesitant” workers — some of whom “may have had no immunisation at all”.

Watters did assure that Covid infections and admissions were decreasing, although other respiratory infections were rising — including HMPV (human metapneumovirus). However, since then the UK Health Security Agency has reported that Covid infections have “increased compared with the previous week”.

During the Covid restrictions, all care home staff were legally required to have been vaccinated against coronavirus in order to work in those facilities, though this was revoked in 2022.

The wearing of masks is also no longer a legal requirement but many care settings in the UK belatedly reintroduced mask wearing this winter due to the rise in flu cases.

Christina Pagel, Prof of operational research in health care at UCL, says that health managers have not learnt the lessons on infection control and should at the very least be mandating the use of high quality masks, such as N95 or FFP2, for staff and visitors.

For flu jabs, government guidance states that “all frontline social care workers should be encouraged to get the vaccine provided by their employer, both to protect themselves and those they care for”.

This month, the NHS in London urged people in the capital to get vaccinated, as the most recent figures revealed there were “more people with flu in the capital’s hospitals than at any point last year”.

However, the majority of working age people are not eligible for an NHS vaccination. The report by Watters states that Camden Council has to buy “300 flu vouchers each year” for council staff who are not eligible for NHS flu vaccines, “to help reduce staff sickness through the winter season.”

According to NHS guidance, if you are “not able to get a free flu vaccination, you may be able to pay for it at some pharmacies”.

Camden Council, Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee, Tuesday, 7 January 2025. Agenda, Webcast.

Additional reporting by Linus Rees.

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