Two-thirds of frontline NHS staff have avoided Covid and flu vaccines this winter, MailOnline can reveal.
According to the latest data from the vaccination campaign for healthcare workers, only 21.8 percent have had a Covid booster so far.
Meanwhile, the uptake of flu shots is 28.9 percent.
It suggests that at best only just over a fifth have had both.
The numbers for both lampreys are well below the heady heights recorded just a few years ago.
NHS bosses have now written to healthcare leaders across the country asking them to do everything they can to increase uptake among their employees.
Experts told MailOnline that the drop in vaccine uptake compared to previous years is ‘extremely worrying’. As there were no Covid vaccines available in October 2020, no data was recorded for this period. By 2021, 40.4 percent of staff had received a Covid booster (considered fully vaccinated at the time), with more than 8 in 10 having received at least one jab
Experts told MailOnline that the figures were ‘extremely worrying’ and would ‘inevitably’ lead to patients becoming infected, putting further pressure on NHS services.
However, others described the figures as an example of ‘vaccine fatigue’ among staff who were repeatedly called in to receive the voluntary jabs.
Concerns have also been raised that low uptake is a result of NHS hospitals not making it easy enough for staff to roll up their sleeves, while workers are simply too busy to get the jab.
The latest figures for the vaccination of frontline NHS staff are significantly lower than last year. They concern staff who have face-to-face contact with patients and will last until the end of October.
However, not every trust is reflected in the figures, so they only show a snapshot of current application across England.
Compared to this year’s data, 30.9 percent of staff had received the flu jab and 28.8 percent had received a Covid booster by the end of October last year.
It also represents a further decline from previous years’ highs.
In 2021, four in ten staff were fully vaccinated against Covid by the end of October that year, with eight in ten having received at least one dose.
And in 2020, more than half of all frontline staff had chosen to get the flu shot.
NHS leaders, including the health service’s most senior doctor and nurse, Professor Sir Stephen Powis and Dame Ruth May, wrote to trusts last week outlining the importance of staff being vaccinated to ‘keep the NHS strong over winter’ .
“All eligible primary health and social care professionals, including clinical and non-clinical staff who have direct contact with patients, should be offered both the flu and Covid vaccines before winter,” the letter reads.
It continues: ‘Employers should make every effort to ensure that eligible frontline staff are offered and have ready access to their vaccine, and that they are encouraged to do so.’
Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist based at Warwick University, said low vaccine uptake among frontline NHS staff was ‘extremely worrying’.
“This will inevitably result in more Covid and flu infections in both NHS staff and patients,” he said.
He added that illness was only one aspect of the problem, and the resulting staff absenteeism also increased pressure on the health service.
‘As we face the emergence of new Covid variants and the increased spread of respiratory infections over the winter months, low levels of vaccination among healthcare workers will put further pressure on the NHS as staff take leave due to infection.
‘There seems to be a lot of complacency among the general public about Covid and a lack of public health messaging.’
Professor Young said the benefits of getting the jab need to be brought to the attention of both NHS staff and the public.
“Many in our society remain susceptible to developing serious illness from Covid and influenza, and there is increasing data on the harmful long-term effects of Covid infection,” he said.
Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious disease expert from the University of East Anglia, said the data revealed by MailOnline reflected ‘vaccine fatigue’ among NHS staff.
“These numbers are not really a surprise,” he said.
Experts said the figures could indicate vaccination fatigue among staff following the pandemic, while others said frontline NHS workers may simply be too busy to find time for a jab at work.
‘Higher vaccination rates occur when people believe they are at risk, and given that almost all people in Britain have had at least one and many have had multiple Covid infections, fear of personal risk is low.
“I suspect that the lower flu levels than before the pandemic reflect some degree of vaccine fatigue.”
He added that although people are now much safer from Covid than before, this does not mean it will not have an impact on the healthcare system.
‘We saw this to some extent last winter, when the pressures of Covid on the health service came not so much from patients being admitted with Covid, but from staff having to be away from work for a week or more , even though it wasn’t particularly sick’ he said.
Professor Robert Dingwall, a sociologist at Nottingham Trent University who advised the government on the virus during the pandemic, said vaccine fatigue may not be the only factor at play.
He said previous British research has shown that NHS leaders are making getting jabs easy for busy staff.
“When the vaccinations took place close to wards and the ward sisters supported the staff who took the time to go for the vaccination, the uptake was quite good,” he said.
‘However, where hospitals expected staff to attend for vaccinations on their own time, sometimes at a different location with parking problems, or nurses felt the service was too busy to release people, vaccination rates were low.’
Professor Dingwall said the latter was likely to blame for the low uptake, as well as staff outside the health service being jabbed and NHS data not catching up.
“I strongly suspect that hospitals are operating at capacity and understaffed, making it difficult to release people to attend vaccination clinics,” he said.
“Weary workers may also be reluctant to give up their own time to track down a vaccination site, or prefer to use one that is convenient to them rather than a spot that is counted in these statistics.”
According to official data, vaccination rates vary from country to country, with 76 and 58 per cent of NHS organizations providing data on flu and Covid jab uptake respectively.
Of those that did, Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust recorded the lowest uptake of flu jabs, with just one in twenty of its 4,700 frontline staff receiving the vaccine.
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust had the lowest Covid-19 vaccination rates, with just four of 3,773 frontline staff receiving the jab (0.1 per cent).
In contrast, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust recorded both the highest flu jab (62.7 per cent) and Covid booster (52.6 per cent) rates among more than 9,000 staff.
Primary health care workers are considered a priority for annual vaccination campaigns.
This is to reduce the risk of them inadvertently transmitting an infection such as flu or Covid to a vulnerable patient and to avoid staff having to take time off work.
Such an infection can occur before an NHS worker starts showing symptoms, meaning there is no advance warning that they could give the disease to a patient.
While most Britons shake off Covid and flu after a short spell of illness, such infections can cause serious illness in vulnerable people.
Such groups include the elderly and people with health problems that weaken their immune systems, such as cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
Speaking about the figures, an NHS England spokesperson also told MailOnline: ‘Both flu and Covid have a serious impact on the health of thousands of people every year, and the NHS needs as many of its staff as possible to keep fit over the winter , when health services come under pressure.
‘Vaccination is our best defense against flu and Covid, and we urge anyone eligible who has not been vaccinated to come forward as soon as possible – it could save your life.’