Hazzard Seeks Equal Access to Vaccines for South Down Nursery Staff.
Sinn Féin’s Chris Hazzard MP has raised concerns that frontline staff in early years education settings in South Down are not being offered equal access to Covid-19 vaccinations.
The South Down MP was contacted by a number of local nursery and creche staff this week from the Southern and South Eastern Health Trust areas who are concerned that they are not being offered a vaccine unlike colleagues in similar settings in the Belfast Trust area.”
Mr Hazzard said: “It is alarming that local frontline staff in these important education settings feel they are not being offered equal access to the Covid-19 vaccine as a result of the disparity in approaches between the different Health Trusts.
“These workers are looking after the children of ‘key-workers’ and are doing so in close contact settings as it is almost impossible to socially distance with such young children from different social bubbles.
“The health needs of these staff must be prioritised urgently and it is absolutely unacceptable that there would be any inequality in the access to vaccinations.
“I have now asked the Department for Health and the Department for Education to ensure that there is no disparity in the access to vaccinations for our vulnerable frontline workers,” added M Hazzard.
