LOWER proportions of black and Chinese health workers at an Oxfordshire NHS trust have come forward to get a Covid-19 vaccine, an internal report has warned.

The document cites ‘eroding’ public trust in health services as one possible reason.

The latest data from March released by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, which runs mental health services in the county as well as community hospitals, reveals that only 63.7 per cent of its BAME staff have been vaccinated overall, and 73.1 per cent of 'frontline' BAME staff have been vaccinated.

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By comparison, 77.8 per cent of all workers and 82.6 per cent of all frontline workers have received the jab.

A separate report to the trust shows that more than 5,000 staff have been vaccinated.

But 2.4 per cent of workers who have been offered a Covid-19 jab have opted out for a variety of reasons such as already being vaccinated, medical condition, pregnancy and 'travel'.

The numbers, published in April, place Oxford Health in the bottom five trusts for uptake amongst BAME frontline staff across the south east.

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Even more, with the significant reduction in vaccinations availability during April, it is unlikely that this position will change in the next few weeks, the trust has revealed.

Reasons given for the low uptake among BAME communities include ‘eroding’ public trust, which can lead to spread of misinformation, and lack of visible BAME representation.

Currently, the breakdown by ethnic groups in Oxford Health's mental health division is: 60 per cent uptake for Chinese workers, 62 per cent for black workers, 75 per cent for Asian and 76 per cent for 'mixed'.

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The trust has already undertaken a number of actions to raise the numbers.

These include one-to-one and group sessions with senior BAME staff to inform and counter misinformation and weekly webinars discussing the vaccination programme with an established BAME pharmacist team and increased drive for jabs before Ramadhan.

In addition, the trust offers all frontline staff the chance to get the vaccine in a range of settings like hospital hubs, local vaccination sites, pharmacy and mass vaccination sites.

Oxford Health was contacted for a comment.