Fury as care home bosses boast after having vaccine first... while residents and frontline staff have to wait
Care home bosses ignited fury after boasting online about being vaccinated – while residents and frontline staff are forced to wait.
Relatives are angry that seemingly healthy executives – one of whom is just 40 – have received their jab while their loved ones remain at risk.
In one case, the leader of one of Britain's biggest care providers was vaccinated before Christmas, despite not visiting any homes during the pandemic.
Controversial: Hayden Knight, above, is given his vaccine
Dr Pete Calveley is given his vaccination
Just 14 per cent of frontline carers have so far received a jab even though the Government says its 'top priority' is to get staff and residents in care homes vaccinated first.
The Mail can reveal three chief executives, in charge of more than 300 care homes between them, have posted photos of themselves on social media being vaccinated since Christmas. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing because it is 'up to care home providers how they prioritise vaccinating their workforce', according to the Department of Health. Nonetheless, it has provoked anger among many relatives of residents.
In a post on social media, the chief executive of Orchard Care Homes told of his delight at being 'one of the first people in the in the country' to receive the Oxford vaccine on January 4.
Hayden Knight, 40, would normally run the company's 24 care homes from an office in Harrogate but is currently working from home.
The Facebook post was taken down after the daughter of an 83-year-old at one of the company's homes in Sunderland complained.
Tania Le Marinel said her mother Edith was isolating after the home's second Covid outbreak in under a month, with none of the 42 carers or residents having had their first jab.
She said: 'I was so appalled they would be insensitive enough to post that. He could do his job from his office or on Zoom.' A spokesman said Mr Knight visited a different care home once a week and that nearly half of the company's staff and residents had received their first jab.
Tania Le Marinel, with her sister, niece, and her 83-year-old mother Edith behind the window
The chief executive of Barchester Healthcare, Dr Pete Calveley, 60, was pictured on Facebook receiving a Pfizer jab on December 23.
He has not been going into the company's 200-plus care homes – where fewer than a fifth of residents have been vaccinated.
The daughter of a resident of 82 with Alzheimer's at a Barchester home in Chester said she was 'incensed'. Jenny Townsend said a jab was her only hope of seeing her 'rapidly deteriorating' mother. 'It is simply unjust,' she added.
A Barchester spokesman said Dr Calveley normally visited many of its 200 plus care homes regularly and, as soon as is allowed, intended to again. He added that senior staff had had the jab to reassure workers and residents it was safe.
The chief executive of Methodist Homes, Sam Monaghan, 59, tweeted a picture of himself with his vaccination card. He also said he had the jab to encourage residents and staff to do so.