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As a vaccinator with the City and Hackney GP Confederation, vaccine hesitancy is something I deal with every shift. For the most part, people are very grateful; however, there are the select few who are still hesitant to receive the vaccine. The evident trend is that the majority of patients who are vaccine hesitant belong to minority groups.
I agree wholeheartedly with Julia Darko in that the solution to the discrepancy in outcomes from COVID-19 infection lies with systemic change and that generations of trauma cannot be undone without meaningful structural change.1 However, this does not solve the current public health issue of people of Black, Bangladeshi and Pakistani backgrounds having the lowest vaccination rates in England.2 These reduced uptake rates also exist on a background of significantly increased risk of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality, including more aggressive disease and poorer survival rates creating a massive health discrepancy.3
In my experience, the most important consideration to make is understanding why exactly the patient is vaccine hesitant as this varies significantly from person to person. This idea of exploring the ICE (Ideas Concerns and Expectations) of the patient is strongly emphasised at medical school but has been lost slightly in the clinical environment. A pilot programme conducted by NHS Leicester City CCG demonstrates the importance of ICE in vaccine uptake, where 69%...
Show MoreCompeting Interests: None declared.