” it would be possible to ask those who do not want to be vaccinated not to be front line workers and have other less exposed roles in the NHS.”
In the case of hospitals doctors, nurses, porters, care assistants etc will all have some patient contact and for most patient contact will be the largest component of their job. For most doctors rotas their numbers reflect the bare minimum needed to fulfil the 48 hour max average week. Losing even one doc messes that up. Similarly for nurses and midwives, they are already short staffed. being realistic, as a doc or nurse/midwife you ain’t much use to anyone if you can’t see patients. Similarly for care staff in nursing homes etc, the majority of the work involves patient/resident contact.
Perhaps a handful could be accommodated but no more than that.
I don’t think it is an issue of altruism, those with altruistic view points will likely have their vaccine anyway. There is a good deal of push back even from the care home operators. Also, as I was trying to express in my previous post the question goes beyond the immediate considerations of the Sars-Cov-2 vaccines.