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The warning has come as the Together Declaration is set to deliver a 350,000-signature petition to Downing Street demanding that the Government ditches the new rule that people working in the NHS have to be vaccinated.

The mandate is set to come into force on April 1 and the campaign group has warned that it will see more than 100,000 doctors, nurses and other staff booted out of the NHS.

According to campaigners though maternity services will be hardest hit with hundreds of midwives set to be forced out as a result.

One trust alone is expected to lose 40 midwives while an NHS manager at another trust told the Sunday Express that “hlf our midwives will be out unless there is a change of heart.”

Heath Secretary Sajid Javid has insisted that the new rule is essential to protect patients from the killer disease.

A Government spokeswoman said: “The evidence is clear – vaccinations remain our best defence against COVID-19 by preventing infection and saving lives.”

“Health and social care workers are responsible for looking after some of the most vulnerable people in society, many of whom are more likely to suffer serious health consequences if exposed to the virus. This is about patient safety, and ensuring people in hospital or care have as much protection as possible.”

Maria Tidela, 34, who has been a midwife for a decade and worked in the NHS for 14 years, said that the profession is focussed on avoiding unnecessary medical interventions and providing natural births where possible which explains a wider concern about an “experimental” vaccine which many believe they do not need.

She said: “It’s the principle of your body, your choice. People should not be forced to have medical treatment that they do not want.”

She was also furious at the revelations of rule breaking parties in Downing Street and likened it to her plight.

“It makes me really angry,” she said. “I’m about to face the sack but they could not even follow their own rules.”

Another 35-year-old midwife with 14 years experience, who wanted to remain anonymous, pointed out that the profession is already facing a crisis because a large number of midwives are leaving the profession because of stress and reaching retirement age.

“The younger ones coming in are overworked and not staying,” she said. “Also this new mandate means that students training to be doctors, nurses or midwives are being rejected if they do not have the vaccine.”

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She had not contracted covid despite working with covid patients and had covered for tripled vaccinated colleagues who had subsequently tested positive.

“None of it makes sense. I’m sure I have immunity and there is no evidence to say that a vaccine would protect my patients.”

Erika Thompson, 44, a midwife for 21 years, said she warned that while NHS trusts are looking at recruiting from abroad to replace staff regulations mean it is hard to replace sacked midwives in the UK.

She does not want to take the vaccine because she has had myocarditis, a heart condition which is known to be exacerbated by the jab.

She warned: “This is going to leave us with a second class service because we will lose so many people from maternity servies.”

There is also a fear that it will lead to a rise in so-called free births – unsupervised births at home.

Dr Ahmed Zaima, an award winning consultant obstetrician working in maternity services, also was concerned about the impact on the heart and said that he wanted to see the data at the end of the experimental period of the vaccine in 2023 before taking it.

But he warned that there was a greater principle at stake.

“Where will this end?” he said. “I’m fighting this for my children because I don’t want them to be forced to have a medical intervention they do not want.”

He added: “It seems ironic that the Royal College was giving me an award in 2005 for my research and now I am facing the sack for not being vaccinated.”

“Health and social care workers are responsible for looking after some of the most vulnerable people in society, many of whom are more likely to suffer serious health consequences if exposed to the virus.

“This is about patient safety, and ensuring people in hospital or care have as much protection as possible. Vaccinations remain our best defence against COVID-19.’’

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