Health services frantically recruiting people to administer new round of Covid vaccines

The 25 GGDs in the Netherlands need an estimated 13,000 employees for the new coronavirus vaccination campaign starting this autumn. Recruiting this many people is a massive task, especially given the tight labor market, AD reports after speaking to the health services.

From mid-September, everyone aged 12 and older in the Netherlands will get an invitation to get another jab against the coronavirus. That is about 10 million vaccinations, depending on turnout, umbrella organization GGD GHOR Nederland calculated. And that requires a great many doctors, nurses, coordinators, vaccination administrators, hosts, and admin staff.

A big problem is that many of the GGD workers who worked on the previous vaccination rounds now have other jobs, various GGDs told the newspaper. Many were temporary workers recruited through employment agencies. And with the tight labor market, there aren’t many people sitting around waiting for a job.

“This labor market is, of course, a real challenge,” Ernst Moeksis of GGD GHOR Nederland said to the newspaper. But he expects the health services will manage to reach their 700,000 jabs per week target in the autumn. The GGD pays well, he said.