© Neil Hall/EPABosses of NHS trusts in England said vaccination should remain voluntary.
Health unions and hospital bosses urged the health service to continue its efforts to persuade its 1.4 million workforce in England to get immunised rather than resorting to compulsion and "bullying" to try to increase take-up.
Downing Street did not dispute a report in the Daily Mail that it was considering making it mandatory for everyone working in health and social care to have the jab as a way of protecting patients.
But the report triggered unease and criticism from key organisations in both sectors.
"Forced vaccinations are the wrong way to go, and send out a sinister and worrying message," said Christina McAnea, the general secretary of Unison, which represents about 100,000 NHS staff.
"Encouragement and persuasion rather than threats and bullying are key to a successful programme, as ministers themselves have repeatedly indicated. Mandatory jabs are counterproductive and likely to make those who are hesitant even more so. This will do nothing to help health and care sectors that are already chronically understaffed."
Comment: Indeed. And it is this 'chronic understaffing' that the government has used to claim that the NHS will be 'overwhelmed' which has had, and will continue to have, deadly consequences: NHS had 15% LESS patients this December compared to 2019 - Any crisis is due to budget cuts, staff shortages and excessive measures
The British Medical Association, which represents doctors, said the move was unnecessary, given the high take-up among medics, and would have "ethical and legal implications".
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the BMA's chair of council, said 96% of doctors had had at least their first dose of Covid vaccine. "While we still do not have universal coverage among healthcare staff, it would be wrong to draw unfair conclusions about them 'refusing' vaccines," he said.
"Thorough work must be done by employers and government to understand and address the reasons why some staff are yet to be vaccinated. Any proposal for a compulsory requirement for healthcare workers to be vaccinated raises clear ethical and legal implications."
Comment: Manufacturers of the experimental vaccines, as well as governments, have themselves warned that people with allergies, pregnant women or women hoping to get pregnant, should NOT take the vaccine. And there are likely a number of other concerns that they're not aren't addressing: The Inanity of RNA Vaccines For COVID-19
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) voiced scepticism about the need for enforced take-up. "We continue to encourage all nursing staff to have the vaccine, and we believe that making the vaccine easily available is the best way increase uptake," said Dame Donna Kinnair, the RCN's chief executive and general secretary.
"It is inherent within the Nursing and Midwifery Council code that nursing staff take measures to protect their patients and the public against serious illness as a professional responsibility."
Take-up among nursing staff had been high, with a survey showing that 85% of nurses had received the first of two doses, Kinnair added.
Ministers are reportedly considering making vaccination mandatory for health and care staff because of evidence that a minority of them, particularly among those from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, are choosing not to have a jab.
The Daily Mail reported that refusal to get vaccinated could lead to health and care staff being denied a "vaccine passport", which - if such a scheme was introduced - could threaten their ability to go abroad or attend sporting, cultural and other mass events in the UK.
Bosses of NHS trusts in England said vaccination should remain voluntary but called for greater efforts to persuade health service personnel to have the jab.
Comment: At some point 'persuasion' becomes coercion: 'Papers, please': Vaccine Passports have officially arrived
Saffron Cordery, the deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts in England, said: "As with the flu vaccine, we would encourage all NHS staff to have a Covid-19 vaccination when they are offered one because of the protection it provides them, their patients, and their families.
Comment: Note the comparison of Covid with the flu; the flu, which if numbers are to be believed, has disappeared this season: British Covid modellers predict 'severe flu next winter because lockdowns prevented usual herd immunity'
"While trust leaders are pleased with the strong uptake of the vaccine amongst staff groups so far, more must be done to address vaccine hesitancy within the workforce and throughout society.
"The most effective way to do this is by giving them the support they need, dispelling myths, and sharing information about the benefits of vaccinations, so that NHS staff choose to have the jab."
Comment: The reasons why some are choosing not to have the experimental vaccine aren't because of 'myths', they're based on facts; one being that these vaccinations were pushed through with emergency legislation and are still considered experimental. In the end, since we know the vast majority of people will develop a natural immunity, many without suffering any symptoms nor being responsible for infecting others, it's clear that there is no medical need to coerce people into taking the vaccine.
In care homes, the latest NHS data shows that up to almost a third of 466,000 care home workers in England (31%) have not been vaccinated, although around 30,000 of them could not receive the jab because they had had Covid in the last 28 days. The take-up in London is particularly low, with 48% still unvaccinated compared with 25% in the south-west.
Comment: If they had Covid, and recovered, then they have natural immunity and do not need a vaccination. Note also that London has higher numbers of ethnic minorities and foreign born people, so that likely supports the data that those areas have a lower uptake because those populations are, notably, choosing to not take the vaccine.
Nadra Ahmed, the executive chairman of the National Care Association, said pressure was also growing from some care home customers, with operators reporting that families were asking for assurances that care staff were vaccinated before they decided whether to place their loved one in a facility.
Comment: They should be checking whether the care home has any deals with local GPs to put their loved ones on Do Not Resuscitate lists: 'Avoidable deaths': Do Not Resuscitate orders issued AGAIN - People with learning disabilities targeted during second lockdown
Last week Care UK said it only wanted to hire new staff who had had the vaccine, while Barchester said it wanted all of its staff, including current workers, to have had the jab by 23 April, adding that if they did not they would not be considered for shifts.
However, the NHS figures do not account for jabs delivered in the last fortnight and MHA, the largest provider of not-for-profit care homes, said that, as of Tuesday this week, only 13% of staff in its 90 care homes had not been vaccinated. Its managers have been having one-to-one conversations with people who are expressing concerns, circulating NHS literature on the safety of the vaccine and putting together information videos.
Some young women had raised concerns about the vaccine's impact on their fertility, while some religious workers had refused, including clusters of Catholic workers, said Emily Knight, MHA's head of corporate affairs.
The NHS has said the vaccines do not affect fertility in women and men and the Vatican has said Catholics can take vaccines that have been developed using cell lines derived from aborted foetuses.
"We are having genuine, honest conversations and really taking concerns seriously," said Knight, who added that there appeared to be increasing "normalisation" of having the vaccine.
Government sources stressed no decision had yet been taken and the review still had many weeks to run. Ministers are grappling with concerns over some NHS and social care workers rejecting a vaccine for reasons unrelated to health, and employers subsequently threatening only to hire those who have been inoculated.
With a substantial amount of people refusing, the attached business would soon go broke - or rebellious.