Vaccine Rollout Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department of Health and Social Care
Baroness Thornton
Main Page: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Thornton's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
Vaccine Rollout
Baroness Thornton Excerpts(3 years, 3 months ago)
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Baroness Thornton (Lab)
My Lords, there was a very worrying story in the media this weekend, which I hope the Minister will use this opportunity to clarify. We learned that the MHRA and NHS Digital have issued official instructions on how to use NIVS, saying that where staff do not have an NHS number, the vaccine should not be given. One email sent to a hospital explicitly states that overseas nurses without NHS numbers, even on the front line, should not be vaccinated. And what about security staff, porters, student nurses coming from outside the country to work for us and staff such as cleaners? Through contracts, lots of people from BAME backgrounds and recent immigrants working in the NHS are not registered with GPs, do not use the NHS, and do not have an NHS number. How can it possibly make sense, from a public health point of view, not to vaccinate everyone on the front line?