Mélina Facchin / Photo credit: FREDERICK FLORIN / AFP 06:17, May 05, 2023

Caregivers and other medical staff who refused to be vaccinated against Covid-19 and who were suspended a year and a half ago will be able to be reinstated in their services. Europe 1 went to meet their colleagues.

Medical staff who had been suspended, because they were not vaccinated against Covid-19, will soon be able to return to work, at least the people who wish to do so. The National Assembly voted on Thursday to repeal the vaccination obligation. A failure for the government: "Conspiracy theory has prevailed over science," said Health Minister François Braun. Europe 1 met two employees of the University Hospital of Strasbourg: one who had been vaccinated, the other not and was therefore suspended.

>> READ ALSO - Covid-19: unvaccinated caregivers reinstated from mid-May, government announces

"No way to go back"

It's been a year and a half since Carine*, a former medical secretary, was suspended from her position at Strasbourg University Hospital for the simple reason that she refused to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Today, even if she has the right, "out of the question" for her to resume her post.

"The words we heard from some colleagues disgusted me," she told Europe 1. For example, I was told: "I hope you will catch Covid and that you will refuse your place in intensive care". "I don't see myself working with this person again," she laughs. For several months, Carine has been training in naturopathy "and there, I will soon settle," says the former medical secretary.

>> READ ALSO - Caregivers: the Assembly votes to repeal the anti-Covid vaccination obligation, rather than its simple suspension

"We need these people badly"

Carole* is a caregiver. She was vaccinated, not out of conviction, but "out of obligation", she reports to the microphone of Europe 1. If suspended former colleagues return to their department, she will welcome them without any problem.

For her, not everyone will be so accommodating. "I've heard colleagues say 'I don't agree at all about them coming back, I had to get vaccinated,'" she said. "I don't mind. We badly need these people," says Carine, recalling that there is currently a shortage of between "200 and 280 nurses" in Strasbourg hospitals.

However, hospital management says the number of people suspended is tiny: they represent only 0.25% of the payroll and most are not caregivers. So their eventual return would certainly not solve the latent problem of lack of staff.

*First names have been changed