Currently, 1,050 nurses are suspended from their duties for refusing to be vaccinated against Covid-19, out of a total of 650,000 nurses in France, according to data from the National Order of Nurses. The French Federation of Hospitals (FHF) estimates in its sector the number of caregivers suspended at 4,000 “out of a total of 1.2 million agents.”
But the current staffing crisis in hospitals raises the question of their reinstatement, while various departments are sounding the alarm about the lack of carers.
“It is putting health professionals aside at a time when we need them,” Philippe Rudyard Bessis, a lawyer for several suspended caregivers, told BFMTV. “If there are people who don’t want to get vaccinated, they don’t get vaccinated.”
Forty Republican deputies asked in early November for the reinstatement of these caregivers. “This suspension no longer makes sense and contributes to the crisis in our hospitals,” wrote then the deputy of the Maritime Alps Éric Ciotti.
“There is an ethical problem”
This shelf affects “very few doctors” and a minimal part of the nurses, recalled on Sunday the Minister of Health, François Braun. to the Grand Jury RTL-LCI-Le Figaro. He felt that her reinstatement would have little impact on the current problem of carer shortages.
For him, two points oppose this reinstatement. D’une part, “accepte-t-on que des gens qui ne sont pas suffisammente protégés soient à proximité des gens les más fragiles?”, s’est-il interrogé, rappelant qu'”on meurt encore du Covid en France tous the days”.
And furthermore, “there is an ethical issue,” he added, particularly in relation to caregivers who played the game at the height of the Covid crisis and who “held the line.”
“This worries a few thousand nurses out of the 700,000 who practice. Getting vaccinated to protect these fragile patients is a moral and ethical imperative,” Thierry Amouroux, spokesman for the National Union of Professional Nurses, added on Monday to FranceInfo, adding that a “caregiver hostile to vaccination, for us it is a casting error. It is better that they convert to other professions.”
“Fire us! Give us the chance to claim unemployment”
The furloughed caregivers are awaiting a decision that concerns them, because they are currently in an unstable situation: they no longer receive a salary but they are not officially fired, so they cannot claim unemployment. In November 2021, Rue89 already pointed out an “administrative error” for these professionals, forced to present a complete vaccination plan to work since last fall.
“If they have not been vaccinated on time, public employees or officials can be suspended, without remuneration,” writes the official website of the public service, and also adds that “dismissal is not possible in case of lack of vaccination in Covid” .
“If they don’t want to reinstate us, that’s fine, but why play this game? Say goodbye! That we have the chance to claim unemployment,” laments a nurse on BFMTV who explains having to work in a way that is undeclared “until a decision is made.”
The Minister of Health explained that he went to the High Health Authority (HAS) and the National Ethics Advisory Committee to rule on the reinstatement, or not, of these caregivers. “I will make my decision once I have these two opinions,” that is, at the beginning of the year, he declared. In an opinion dated July 22, 2022, the HAS had ruled in favor of maintaining the obligation to vaccinate caregivers.
Source: BFM TV
