Unions have raised concerns at mandatory vaccination programme at the Royal Free

SOLDIERS are being parachuted into the Royal Free Hospital in a week when thousands of NHS staff were ordered to get double vaccinated or face losing their jobs.

The army’s arrival comes as hospitals serving Camden patients face the strain of increased Covid admissions, staff isolating due to the spread of the Omicron variant and a new safety ultimatum on jabs that comes into force on April 1.

Mandatory vaccination – which is opposed by all health unions – is a serious headache for NHS managers who are facing having to stop thousands of health workers coming to work during the ongoing pandemic.

Just under a fifth of staff at the Royal Free, UCLH and Whittington – around 5,000 health workers – have not had at least two jabs.

They have been written to this week and told they must sign up for their first injection by February 3, under terms being introduced into their NHS work contracts.

One Royal Free staff source said: “The hospitals are not coping and they say we need to get the vaccine to save the NHS. Now the soldier boys are coming again. But if they need the army in, how are they going to cope if they let all the staff leave who don’t want the jab?”

The latest figures show 84 per cent of staff are double vaccinated, with 63 per cent having had a booster as well.

Omicron infections are rocketing and the intensive care unit is once again becoming overwhelmed with Covid patients.

Despite the variant having milder symptoms, there are 16 severely ill patients on ventilators in the ICU at the Free.

Around 8 per cent of Camden hospitals’ staff are off sick with the virus or isolating.

The Free has this week introduced tougher visitor restrictions meaning just one family member can visit severely ill relatives for up to an hour a day.

Jim Mansfield, Unison rep at the Free, said talks with management were ongoing, adding: “All the unions are opposed to compulsory vaccinations, but unfortunately the government passed the statutory instrument in the Commons to add the compulsory vaccination clause to NHS contracts.”

He added: “We are working through the implications of this with management. Ideally we are looking at redeployment but with the current numbers this is unlikely.

“At the moment the main emphasis is to encourage as many staff as possible to have their first vaccination by February 3. I suspect most trusts in the area are in the same position.”

Experts have warned that forcing NHS staff to get vaccinated will create greater rifts between management and an already sceptical workforce.

The legislation is backed by the Labour Party. Its leader, the Holborn and St Pancras MP Sir Keir Starmer, was at home yesterday (Wednesday) having tested positive for the coronavirus.

Sir Keir Starmer has registered another positive Covid test and is in isolation

In an internal bulletin to staff, Julie Hamilton the RFL group’s chief nurse, said: “From April our staff will be expected to be at least double vaccinated against Covid-19 and we are preparing for this now and advise all our staff to get double vaccinated before these measures are introduced.”

It added: “It is worth reminding ourselves that it is important we all have it so we can protect ourselves, our patients, our communities and our colleagues.”

The bulletin said it was still unclear “what this means for our staff” in terms of jobs and compulsory redundancies. It is hoped that by next week more will be clear.

Last January, 40 combat medical technicians were drafted in to help out in the intensive care unit.

The Free said: “We are following government guidance which requires patient-facing staff to have received two doses by April 1, and will adhere to any further guidance on redeploying frontline staff who choose to remain unvaccinated by the deadline.”

• CAMDEN GPs have been told to refer high-risk Covid patients who do not need to be admitted to hospital to a specialist clinic after the discovery of “important new treatments for coronavirus”.

Patients are being prescribed the new oral antivirals from a new service in the basement of UCLH.

Experts say the pills can help prevent the disease causing hospitalisation or death in vulnerable patients.