Antoine Terrel 1:58 p.m., September 11, 2021, modified at 1:58 p.m., September 11, 2021

The obligation to vaccinate against Covid-19 for hospital staff must come into force from September 15.

On Europe 1, Frédéric Valletoux, president of the Hospital Federation of France, believes that this measure is "a good thing", and is confident about its respect by caregivers. 

INTERVIEW

The deadline is approaching.

From Wednesday, the vaccine obligation against Covid-19 for hospital staff will come into force.

Therefore, all employees of hospitals and nursing homes may be suspended, without remuneration, if they have not received at least one dose.

But if many reluctant caregivers have ended up resigning themselves, others still remain skeptical, or have come up against this constraint at the heart of the weekly mobilizations that began this summer.

Invited Saturday from Europe 1, Frédéric Valletoux, president of the Hospital Federation of France, is however optimistic about the proper application of this measure on the ground. 

"It's something positive"

Compulsory vaccination for hospital staff, "it is now the law, and therefore it is a rule that must be implemented", he indicates, recalling moreover that nursing staff already have "a vaccination coverage that goes beyond that of the French ". 

For him, "the vaccination obligation is a good thing" to avoid in particular contamination in the hospital.

Moreover, he adds, "we would have liked it to apply immediately from the start of the vaccination campaign, in early 2020".

Anyway, he said again, "this is something positive and we will get there". 

"The departments concerned will reorganize themselves"

Still, 300,000 caregivers are still unvaccinated, according to figures from the Ministry of Health.

"Every day, the figures go up. We will see what the figure is in a few days", answers Frédéric Valletoux, who warns that obviously, out of a million people who work at the hospital, "we will not have a million of people vaccinated on Wednesday ". 

"There will always be, in a residual or marginal way, people who will not be vaccinated", he says again, but "we will manage".

And to conclude ": These people will be suspended and the services concerned will reorganize themselves to cope".