Covid briefing: Five things you need to know about Covid as unvaccinated workers from England could work in Wales
| Published date | 24 January 2022 |
| Publication title | WalesOnline (Wales) |
Frontline staff in England must be fully vaccinated against COVID with two jabs by April 1 -meaning they must have had their first dose by February 3.
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UK Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab has urged NHS staff in England who have not had their mandatory COVID vaccines to do so amid calls for the deadline to be delayed.
Mr Raab played down suggestions the April 1 deadline could be postponed while NHS representatives have warned the policy could force thousands of frontline workers to leave their roles at a time when patient demand is high.
Vaccines are not compulsory for NHS staff in Wales, but Mr Drakeford said a "vast majority" of care sector staff had taken the "protections that vaccination offers".
In an interview for BBC Radio 4 on Sunday, he was asked if he would take on NHS staff from England.
The First Minister said: "We wouldn't rule it out but it would depend on what anybody said in an interview when they were applying for a job. We're not going to make vaccinations mandatory in our NHS.
"We haven't in our social care services because we have succeeded by persuasion by getting the vast majority of people who work in our services to do the right thing and take up the protections that vaccination offers."
He added: "I don't expect us to go looking for people who have not been vaccinated but, if people apply, then they would be interviewed in the normal way. We'd look to see what lay behind their decision. We wouldn't rule them out but we certainly won't be going out there looking for them."
Pat Cullen, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said the deadline for mandatory jabs should be delayed or the policy would "backfire".
She said: "Nothing matters more to a nurse than caring for their patients safely. Right now, our members are telling me they can't always do that. We are calling on the Government to recognise this risk and delay a move which by its own calculations looks to backfire. To dismiss valued nursing staff during this crisis would be an act of self-sabotage."
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