Are we moving towards an obligation to be vaccinated for nursing staff? On Monday, the government indicated that “at least 80%” of nursing home and hospital staff must have received at least one dose of vaccine against Covid-19 by September, failing which it will open “the way for a obligation ”. And in Occitanie, as elsewhere in France, two months before the deadline, the account is not there.
In the region, according to figures released on Wednesday by Pierre Ricordeau, the director general of the Regional Health Agency (ARS) of Occitanie, liberal health professionals have the highest vaccination rate. “About three quarters” are vaccinated in Occitania, he says, which corresponds roughly to the national average. In hospitals, it is a little lower: two thirds of nursing staff are.
Growing figures at Toulouse University Hospital
But it depends on the establishments: at the Toulouse University Hospital (Haute-Garonne), the figures are a little higher than the average for other hospitals in the region. “The vaccination rate is 72%,” confirms Professor Laurent Schmitt, president of the Establishment Medical Commission (CME) of the Toulouse hospital. It is a little stronger among medical personnel, between 74 and 75%. And a little less at the level of paramedical staff, 64%. But what is important is that the dynamics of vaccination, for the last two months, are still increasing. “
In medico-social establishments, in particular nursing homes, the figure is much lower. Occitanie is at the level of the national average, “slightly above 50%”, points out Pierre Ricordeau, the director general of the ARS. “This is insufficient, and it is not a normal situation with regard to the fragility of the residents, in a context of threats linked to the appearance and the diffusion of certain worrying variants”, deplored Monday, in a letter to the nursing staff, the Ministers of Health Olivier Véran and of Autonomy Brigitte Bourguignon, in view of the figure in nursing homes, where only 55% of professionals have received at least one dose.
In nursing homes, some are afraid of vaccines, side effects, AstraZeneca …
For Jean-Jacques Molina, the president in Occitania of the National Federation of Associations of Directors of Establishments and Services for the Elderly (FNADEPA), it is difficult to explain why the vaccination rate of nursing staff is lower than in nursing homes. other sectors. “In Occitania, we are between 55 and 60% of nursing staff vaccinated in nursing homes, roughly the same level as the national average,” explains this former director of an nursing home. Arguments [de ceux qui ne souhaitent pas être vaccinés], there are as many in these establishments as elsewhere. Some are afraid of vaccines, or side effects, some do not want AstraZeneca… There is no difference with the rest of the population. “
And if the State were to make the vaccine against Covid-19 compulsory in establishments welcoming the elderly, FNADEPA would not oppose it. “We are well aware that the only real weapon against Covid-19 is the vaccine,” continues Jean-Jacques Molina. We are in a quasi-permanent approach to pedagogy. If vaccination becomes compulsory, we will of course do our duty. But it will have to be done with a lot of pedagogy. We are not going to tie our staff to a chair to prick them. “
“Iterative” campaigns
In Occitania, to convince caregivers to take the piquouse, “iterative campaigns are carried out in establishments to encourage vaccination, and to remind people that the current rates are considered to be at the low limit of what is necessary”, explains the professor. Laurent Schmitt, from Toulouse University Hospital, who notes that at least “10% more are necessary”. In “the coming days”, this incentive to be vaccinated will be accentuated, continues the professor.
This Wednesday, on France Inter, Jean-François Delfraissy, President of the Scientific Council, said he had “changed his mind” on the obligation of vaccination for caregivers. “I was against the obligation, but it seems to me that now we have reached the level where we will have to consider an obligation,” said the professor.