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'Business as usual': Top London hospital cutting vaccinators in 'gobsmacking move' despite Mpox surge
23 August 2024, 08:58
A whistleblower has warned LBC that a top London hospital is laying off an entire team of vaccinators - despite mounting concerns about the spread of the deadly Mpox virus.
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As a result of changes to the national immunisation strategy, which is returning to a ‘business as usual’ state, sixteen assessor vaccinators in Guy’s and St Thomas’s Covid Prevention and Intervention Service will lose their jobs or be moved into other roles in the trust.
The Hospital is one of only five High Consequence Infectious Disease Centres in the country dealing with Mpox, and played a central role in the vaccination programme during the last outbreak of the virus in 2022.
The restructuring at the hospital, devised in April, has seen vaccinators made redundant just days after the WHO declared the Mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the whistleblower, who has seen the hospital’s consultation document, said they were “gobsmacked” that, despite the WHO’s warnings, the trust is pressing ahead with disestablishing the role.
“I was gobsmacked. I don't feel comfortable at all with what the trust is doing,” the whistleblower told LBC.
“When we had the Mpox outbreak in 2022, we had people queuing for two-to-three hours, all through the length of the building and out of the front of the hospital. We had hundreds of people coming in each day," they said.
During the global Mpox emergency in 2022, a nationwide vaccination programme was triggered in order to combat the surge in cases in the United Kingdom. By the end of the year, there wre 3,732 confirmed or highly probable Mpox cases reported in the UK.
However, this national immunisation programme was scaled back in the summer 2023, with eligibility being confined to those who live in London or Greater Manchester, regularly travel to these regions for sex or travel to other countries for that purpose.
Asked whether the national programme will be revived in light of the latest outbreak, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), which is coordinating the country’s Mpox response, said that it was keeping the decision “under review”.
More than 17,000 people have been diagnosed with Mpox across Africa this year, resulting in 571 deaths.
Harun Tulunay contracted Mpox in the UK in June 2022, spending nearly two weeks in hospital and a total of forty days in isolation.
“It started off like any other viral infection - high fever, body pain and muscle aches,” he explained.
“A couple of days later, a couple of pimples and lesions started around my body… in two weeks’ time, I reached a state that the scar in my face, the lesion on my face, had spread and my throat was shut down with lots of lesions. I wasn’t able to move - the pain was unbearable.”
Having been admitted to hospital still unaware he had Mpox, Mr Tulunay feared for his life.
He said: "Reaching 42 degrees of fever and not being able to do anything, I really thought that was the end of my life. It was really scary.
“Being isolated, not being able to talk to anyone or see anyone for forty days, and the only people I was able to see were the doctors and nurses in special protection suits… it was a really, really terrible time.”
A new variant of Mpox has emerged since Harun’s experience, with the Clade 1b form of the virus taking hold in Africa.
Experts at the UKHSA insist that the current vaccine, produced by Bavarian Nordic, will likely offer adequate protection against the virus, despite admitting that its true effectiveness is currently unknown.
Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, Chair of the Joint Committee of Vaccinations and Immunisations, told LBC the response to Mpox is currently ‘under review’ and that his committee will continue to provide advice to DHSC.
Speaking to LBC’s Tom Swarbrick, Dr Catherine Smallwood, the WHO’s Emergency Operations Manager for Europe, said that although Africa remains the region of greatest concern, Mpox has continued to circulate in Europe since the 2022 outbreak.
“We know Mpox Clade 2 already is [in Europe], and there are several different variants… The UK hasn’t yet reported to the WHO any cases of Clade 1, but we should be ready for importation of any new Mpox cases.
“Regardless of which Clade it is, Mpox is Mpox. It’s different from Covid. Doctors need to know how to detect it and diagnose it and we need to respond to it.”
Responding to LBC’s revelations, a spokesperson from Guy’s and St Thomas’ said: “We have been proud to host the vaccination service on behalf of NHS England throughout the pandemic and beyond. The restructuring of the service has been made in line with an earlier change in national guidance for vaccinations and immunisations.
“We have worked hard to try and support the vast majority of people into other roles, and regret that this has not been possible for everyone.”
