The Association is working with fellow medical device sector trade organisations to explore whether the Government would consider whether certain medical and dental device/products key workers could receive priority COVID-19 vaccinations.
The Guidelines from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) highlight that the first priorities for the COVID-19 vaccination programme should be the prevention of mortality and the protection of health and social care staff and systems. A number of dental and medical device industry staff e.g. service engineers, could be considered as a critical component of these systems, fulfilling key functions to support the delivery of healthcare. There is an argument that certain industry employees could be considered frontline health and care workers. They may be maintaining or installing essential equipment, offering technical support for specialised procedures, or, in other device sectors, delivering direct patient care in the community. These workers work alongside NHS Trust and community care colleagues and, in our case, NHS private dental colleagues, to provide essential support, the only difference being that they are employed by industry rather than the NHS, or community care or dental providers.
It has been brought to the attention of Ministers that these indispensable staff should be recognised as frontline health and social care workers, and placed in the appropriate vaccine priority group (Priority Group 2 as of 6th January 2021). Industry staff who should be considered as frontline health and social care workers include those installing and maintaining medical equipment in hospitals, (dental) primary care and community settings, those providing clinical support in hospitals and community settings and those providing in-hospital managed services.
In order to further develop our case we have prepared a short questionnaire for members who employ staff engaged in onsite maintenance, repair and installation to complete.
Any information collected will be treated in the strictest confidence, and will only be shared in an anonymised, aggregated format. Company name and contact details are only requested for internal BDIA use.
