Care home leader hails ‘brilliant’ vaccination effort

Kingsley Healthcare CEO Daya Thayan has hailed the “brilliant vaccination effort” after the government announced it had offered vaccinations to all care homes for older people in England.

Speaking exclusively to CHP last week, Daya said 70% of Kingsley Healthcare’s care homes had been vaccinated with the remainder set to receive their jabs in the next few days.

“I am absolutely thrilled,” Daya said. “The government could not have done any better on the vaccine programme. They have made some mistakes during the pandemic but on vaccinations, they have been brilliant.”

The CEO told CHP that 6% of staff had declined vaccinations saying they needed more information.

“We are trying to persuade people in a constructive and a collaborative way,” Daya said.

“I genuinely think as a family business we are better placed to work with our staff, talk to them and achieve a better outcome. I want to get the number not taking up vaccinations down to 3%. That would be 60 out of our 2,000 people, which would be a huge achievement. Of that 60, I am sure a number of them will have a valid reasons not to take the vaccine.”

The CEO told CHP anyone not taking the vaccine would have to be persuaded to take a role outside the care setting to ensure the safety of residents.

The Kingsley boss, who is in recovery from COVID after having contracted the virus over Christmas, said the pandemic had been “pretty traumatic to say the least” for residents and staff.

Kingsley has suffered outbreaks at 11 care homes during the current wave of the pandemic since the beginning of December.

Three of its homes are still in lockdown, with 250 of its staff currently sick or unwell and 86 residents having sadly died, around double the level of deaths the operator suffered in the first wave.

Source: Carehomeprofessionals.com