A forthcoming vaccine mandate for health workers in England has prompted fears of a staff revolt within the UK’s health service.

Top NHS figures have warned the coming vaccine mandate for health workers in England will prompt a staff revolt in the UK’s nationalised health care service, leading to a disruption of medical services.

Vaccination against the Chinese Coronavirus is to be made mandatory for front-facing staff within the NHS from April. Those working within the socialised health service that refuse to get the jab will lose their employment.

However, according to a report by The Guardian, there are fears among senior health service managers that workers will revolt against the mandate regardless of this fact, and that some services within the health system will be severely disrupted as a result.

“Trust leaders are acutely aware that, from April onwards, when Covid vaccinations will become mandatory, decisions by staff to remain unvaccinated could – in extreme circumstances – lead to patient services being put at risk,” said Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers. “If sufficient numbers of unvaccinated staff in a particular service in a particular location choose not to get vaccinated, the viability and/or safety of that service could be at risk.”

Hopson in particular emphasised the danger the upcoming mandate poses for English maternity services, with there already being a shortage of qualified individuals within that area.

“I was talking to a [trust] chief executive who said that 40 of the midwives on their midwifery service … were saying they were not prepared to be vaccinated. Those staff, given their skills and their expertise, are not easily redeployed but they’re also extremely difficult to replace,” Hopson told The Guardian, describing the given example as “representative”.

The vaccine mandate was confirmed by the UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid last month, with it being estimated at the time that there were around 73,000 workers at risk of losing their jobs.

Javid subsequently told parliament last week that as many as 94,000 NHS staff members have not yet taken the jab.

While it is unclear how many of the unvaccinated within the service fall under the remit of the mandate as “face-to-face” workers, the House of Lords has raised concerns over the government’s use of the term, saying that the definition is too vague.

The House of Lords also raised concerns over the effects the mandate will have on staffing levels, the Guardian report stated, a concern echoed by the Royal College of Midwives.

“We are concerned that this will inevitably deepen maternity staff shortages and severely impact those midwives and maternity support workers left behind in services already struggling with acute staffing shortages,” the college said.

Despite the host of issues, the health secretary has said that dumping unvaccinated healthcare professionals is a good idea.

“This is all about patient safety,” he said. “It’s about doing whatever we can to protect some of the most vulnerable people in our society, whether in care homes or in a hospital bed, and making sure we reduce that risk of infection from this horrid virus as much as we possibly can.”