Deadline for Dentists to Receive Full Covid 19 Vaccination is April 2022

To fulfil the target of April 2022, the NHS has said that dental workers who are not fully vaccinated must receive the initial dosage by the 3rd of February.

According to recent statistics, over 90% of NHS personnel in England have received two doses of the vaccination. However, in certain organisations, this percentage can be less than 80%.

Full Covid 19 vaccination became mandatory for care home workers in November of this year. This includes people who work in senior care facilities in England unless individuals are medically exempt from receiving the vaccine. The fact that this rule does not cover all medical staff until spring of 2022 means there are growing concerns that there will be a staffing shortage throughout the winter.

Cambridgeshire based dentist, Neel Kothari, worries that “the decision to mandate vaccinations for all patient-facing roles in CQC registered organisations is likely to further jeopardise the already precarious recruitment crisis in dentistry,”

“This ‘cover all’ approach fails to recognise the differences in risk levels between dental practices and busy NHS hospitals. We are already hearing of people handing in their notices as they are opting out of vaccination.”

“Forcing this issue has a significant risk of backfiring and could lead to countless health-related deaths through a lack of available care.”

“These are the same people we clapped for during the first lockdown. This is a shameful way to treat our heroes.”