Spain is to enable employers to organise Covid vaccinations of staff through mutual insurance companies.
The Local reports the country’s social security minister José Luis Escrivá announced earlier this week that his government is currently drafting an agreement with the Spanish Confederation of Employers’ Organisations (CEOE) for companies to manage and schedule their employees’ vaccine through mutual work accident and liability companies, known in Spain as “mútuas”.
The plan will enable Spain’s 17 regions to add 6,800 nurses from the mutual insurance companies to join the vaccine campaign, alleviating the pressure on public health workers who have handled almost all administration of doses.
Commenting on whether the UK could follow suit with regard to ongoing booster vaccines, Debra Clark, head of specialist at Towergate Health & Protection, told Health & Protection that in the near term she expects all Covid vaccine programmes to be delivered by the NHS.
“As the pandemic subsides and vaccine supply stabilises we could see a Covid-19 booster vaccination programme potentially working like flu vaccinations, where the government operates an annual NHS programme targeting high risk groups, and companies can buy the vaccines privately for employees in low risk groups as part of their wider health and wellbeing strategy. We don’t anticipate the cost of Covid-19 vaccinations being covered by private medical insurance (PMI), as PMI in the UK is not designed to cover the cost of preventative treatments.
“There are too many unknowns though – availability, price point, NHS need, employee demand – to know for certain whether a flu-type vaccination model could work in the UK, the greatest unknown being the impact of future variants and the extent to which these might require ongoing universal vaccination programmes.”