France: the vaccination obligation comes into force for nursing staff

From this Wednesday, September 15, vaccination is compulsory for nursing and non-nursing staff in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and retirement homes.

REUTERS - Stephane Mahe

Text by: Simon Rozé Follow

3 min

Almost 2.7 million people are affected.

This Wednesday, September 15, the medical professions must certify that they have received at least one dose of vaccine against Covid-19.

If the vast majority is in order, there are still opponents.

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At least a first dose from this Wednesday and a vaccination course completed on October 15.

Failure to do so may result in suspension with payroll deduction.

Acted by law on August 5, the vaccination obligation for nursing staff therefore comes into force and in the vast majority of cases, without causing any problems.

In fact, vaccination coverage is very high on average there: 95% in liberal medicine, 90% in hospitals and in Ephad, far from the levels of last May when the vaccination obligation of caregivers began to be mentioned.

The rate then peaked at around 50%.

That said, the current averages hide disparities by occupation.

For paramedics, for example, 13% of them had not yet received any dose of vaccine at the beginning of September.

In CHUs too, the absence of a single person can disrupt a whole chain of care.

That of Nancy, for example, has already announced the deprogramming of operations.

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To listen also: Vaccination obligation: "The caregivers express their dissatisfaction by refusing the vaccine"

There are also concrete consequences for those who refuse to be vaccinated.

Whether we agree or not with this choice, it has consequences: "

 I imagine a possible retraining

," explains Laetitia, who works in follow-up care and rehabilitation in Val-de-Marne, during a demonstration organized against the vaccine obligation.

I should work illegally since we are not really made redundant and we do not touch unemployment either.

I'm going to have to work days, nights, sell vegetables or whatever.

I am a single mother and I must continue to work for my child and for myself. 

"

A definite interest in terms of public health

If throughout France, the people who find themselves in the situation of Laetitia are very much in the minority, it is however different in the West Indies. Guadeloupe, for example, is just beginning to see the end of a terrible epidemic wave, caused in particular by very low vaccination coverage. "

 The hospital is the image of the territory"

, worries Gérard Cotellon, the director of the CHU of Pointe-à-Pitre. Only 25% of staff completed their vaccination course there.

“I am faced with two choices

, he continues: 

or I authorize professionals who do not meet the conditions to be practiced. Either I suspend. But since there are a lot of unvaccinated staff or who did not respond to my request for proof of their vaccination status, I will have to close the hospital.

 "

However, the vaccination obligation has a definite interest in terms of public health.

Since the start of the epidemic, more than 60,000 people have contracted Covid-19 in hospitals, now making the coronavirus a nosocomial infection.

“

 In 2020, half of the deaths from infections caught in hospital were from Covid-19.

This is not a small subject

, explains Gérard Cotellon.

It questions our professional ethics, which is why we are here.

We have vulnerable people who are sick.

It is not a question of aggravating their situation by transmitting a virus whose lethality we know.

 "

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  • Health and medicine

  • Coronavirus

  • Vaccines

  • France