Agenda item

To follow

Richard Chew, Interim Director of Communications – King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (“Interim Director of Communications”) attended the meeting and provided an update on the King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust on behalf of Jonathan Lofthouse, Site Chief Executive – PRUH and South Sites.

With regards to vaccine hesitancy, the Interim Director of Communications advised that this had been, and continued to be, one of the biggest challenges of the vaccination programme. It was noted that 3% of staff across the Trust had formally declined the offer of a vaccination. The Trust had received over 230 varying comments from the 400 staff who had declined their vaccination offer, as to their reasons for doing so. Around 20% were awaiting their first dose of the vaccine, who had not declined, and over the next seven days they would try and increase the pace and scale of communications to these staff to encourage uptake before the disruption to supply. In response to a question, the Interim Director of Communications said that there were a number of different reasons had been received from staff as to why they did not want to receive the vaccine – there was not a specific theme and it was hard to pinpoint why some were more hesitant than others. It was considered that there may be some staff who wanted to wait a little bit longer to see any effects of vaccine.

The Interim Director of Communications said that the Trust had tried to make the vaccination as accessible as possible for all staff and they were looking at ways to increase this even further. The PRUH had more than 70% vaccination uptake from staff, which it was highlighted was higher than the NHS national average. The majority of staff working there had chosen to be vaccinated and the Trust was looking to learn lessons as to why the PRUH had outperformed other sites. In response to a question, the Interim Director of Communications said that he was aware that other countries, where hesitancy was particularly strong, had suggested offering monetary incentives as part of their strategy to encourage uptake, however this was not something that would be pursued here. The focus would be on reaching out to the communities that were the most hesitant of the vaccine and using trusted voices to encourage them to receive it.

A Member enquired if the Trust would be including the risk of legal challenge, which could arise from situations relating to staff who were not vaccinated caring for patients, within their Risk Register. The Interim Director of Communications agreed to take this back and seek clarity regarding all legal situations that could manifest as part of COVID-19 and a response would be provided to Members following the meeting. The Consultant in Public Health highlighted that the vaccination programme focused on protecting those most vulnerable to the infection, but there was not currently a legal system in place that mandated vaccinations. As it was not yet clear how effective the vaccine was at preventing transmission and all infection control measures, and the wearing of PPE, would remain in place. This provided protection to both the health care staff and those they were looking after, and therefore it should not make a difference if the carer was vaccinated or not.

In response to a question, the Interim Director of Communications gave reassurance that steps were already being taken to resume “business as normal” as quickly and safely as possible. This, along with caring for the current patients with COVID-19, was their main priority – the Trust were not under the pressures faced from the previous waves of COVID-19 and were now looking to reinstate services. There were several initiatives being rolled out, part of which was ensuring that a staff recovery plan was in place to support them. The Trust’s greatest asset was its staff and they needed to ensure that they were “ready, willing and able” to help return services to normal. There were timescales and plans in place, which were reviewed on a daily or weekly basis, and it was agreed that these would be provided to Members following the meeting.

The Chairman thanked the Interim Director of Communications – King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust for the update provided to the Sub-Committee.