COVID-19: Osteopaths’ eligibility for vaccination as front line workers – update

This statement confirms that osteopaths are regulated health professionals working within the independent sector and NHS and therefore may be eligible for the vaccination as front line health and social care workers if they have ‘frequent face to face contact with patients and … are directly involved in patient care’.

The Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisation (JCVI) has made the following recommendation: ’you should give priority to frontline staff “at high risk of acquiring infection, at high individual risk of developing serious disease, or at risk of transmitting infection to multiple vulnerable persons or other staff in a healthcare environment”. This includes but is not limited to:

• staff working on the vaccination programme
• staff who have frequent face-to-face contact with patients and who are directly involved in patient care in either secondary or primary care, mental health, urgent and emergency care and community settings
• those working in independent, voluntary and non-standard healthcare settings such as hospices, and community-based mental health or addiction services’

To establish whether someone is registered as an osteopath, you can check our UK Register of osteopaths at: osteopathy.org.uk/register-search

You can find out more about all the statutory regulators on the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care’s website.