corona pandemic
Vaccination for nursing professions: patient advocates for postponement
A company medical assistant draws up a dose of the vaccine from Biontech/Pfizer in a company vaccination center. (Archive image) Photo: Marijan Murat/dpa
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By March 15, employees in clinics and nursing homes should prove that they have been vaccinated or have recovered. Otherwise it’s the health authorities’ turn. That’s the plan. But they see themselves overwhelmed.
The calls for a postponement of the corona vaccination requirement for employees of clinics and nursing homes are getting louder.
“The vaccination requirement for medical and nursing professions must not be introduced with a crowbar,” said the board of directors of the Patient Protection Foundation, Eugen Brysch, the German Press Agency. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) must take the local concerns seriously.
“Health authorities, regulatory authorities and employers are unable to implement the mammoth work by March 15 without serious upheaval,” said Brysch. Lauterbach must know that the care of up to 200,000 people in need of care and the sick is in danger. “A delay is urgently needed.”
Health authorities should be informed
The law passed by the Bundestag and Bundesrat stipulates that employees in facilities with vulnerable people such as nursing homes and clinics must prove by March 15 that they have been vaccinated against Corona or have recovered from an infection – or submit a certificate that they will not be vaccinated be able. Employers must inform the health authorities if this does not happen.
However, the health authorities feel overwhelmed with the control. It is expected that on average five to ten percent of the employees will have no clear proof or no complete vaccination protection and a report will be sent to the health department, said Elke Bruns-Philipps, deputy chairwoman of the Federal Association of Doctors in the Public Health Service, the “Rheinische Post”.
“This is a significant burden with the examination of each individual case, as is now planned, which the health authorities cannot cope with in a timely manner,” she criticized. “In principle, a procedure with a new deadline for the health department to submit vaccination documents and a hearing is planned.” The employees are allowed to continue working for the time being. The health department decides “on how to proceed and the measures to be taken at its discretion,” a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Health told Business Insider.
Questions of further implementation
The CEO of the German Hospital Society, Gerald Gass, suggested extending the deadline. “We support facility-related compulsory vaccination. However, key questions about further implementation are still unresolved, and it may therefore be necessary to adjust deadlines in the process,” he told the Rheinische Post.
If the health department issues a ban on entering the workplace for an unvaccinated person, the person concerned will be released from work, of course without continued payment of wages. But: “If the first vaccination is already available for individuals, the further vaccinations can be made up for quickly. In these cases, we can imagine pragmatic solutions, such as an extension of the deadline, in order to keep the employees.»