Will the Toulouse University Hospital reintegrate unvaccinated caregivers?
Almost a year after the decision to suspend unvaccinated medical staff, what about the Toulouse University Hospital?
Since September 15, 2021, unvaccinated medical personnel can no longer practice, under the law relating to the management of the health crisis, of August 5, 2021. At the Toulouse University Hospital, 45 hospital staff are currently suspended, including 30 caregivers.
The CHU subject to the decision of the HAS
Contacted by The Midi Dispatch on this subject, the CHU did not wish to answer our questions, just reminding us that it was subject to the decision of the High Authority for Health. Indeed, on July 22, the HAS said it was “in favor of maintaining the obligation to vaccinate against Covid-19 for personnel working in health and medico-social establishments”. “The current epidemic situation is characterized by a seventh epidemic wave due to the BA.5 sub-lineage of the Omicron variant”, argued in particular the HAS.
The Academy of Medicine and the Scientific Council had also, a few days earlier, expressed their reservations about a possible return to work for these professionals. “We follow the advice of scientists”, had for its part reacted the government.
“It’s contradictory”
A situation which does not however suit the unions. “We have always been against the suspensions of unvaccinated caregivers,” says Pauline Salingue, specialist educator and CGT delegate at the Toulouse University Hospital. “It is totally contradictory with the conditions in which we had to exercise for months, without any means of protection”.
Especially since, according to her, certain somewhat “critical” services had instructions from management to come and work with the Covid, when they were “not too symptomatic”. Including after the suspensions. “There is therefore a contradiction between the fact that we suspend unvaccinated caregivers, and at the same time, make some who are sick and in fact contagious work. This has had an impact on the people who have been suspended, but also on their colleagues who saw the absurdity of the thing”.
Lack of staff
The CGT delegate would have preferred that the CHU privilege pedagogy to the sanction around the questions of vaccination. “Anything that has been said, such as ‘masks are useless’, ‘Covid is not contagious through the air’, even if it was more than two years ago, has led to a lack of trust in staff.
Thus, according to Pauline Salingue, it is necessary to reintegrate the suspended caregivers. “While taking daily precautions so that there is a minimal risk of contagion. In other words, having masks, which we did not have for a long time”.
The suspension also poses another problem: they represent fewer caregivers. “We withdrew staff in a period of shortage, it’s not very smart,” she says. Before conceding: “But this shortage of staff is much broader than the suspensions. We are missing many positions at the Toulouse University Hospital. In any case, if there are still around forty fewer staff here, it is already too much”. The CGT delegate also agrees: “There were more or less suspensions depending on the hospital. At the CHU, it was less important than elsewhere”.