Status: 18.09.2021 03:47 a.m.
Employees in nursing homes, schools and daycare centers may now be asked by their employers whether they have been vaccinated against Covid-19. What does this mean for everyday life in the facilities?
For employees in hospitals and medical practices it has been around for a long time, for employees in schools, daycare centers and nursing homes since the middle of last week: the obligation to provide information about a corona vaccination. With this, the legislature wants to protect particularly vulnerable people even better. How do clinics and care facilities deal with the new regulation?
The local Berlin hospital association Vivantes reacted calmly to the expansion of the obligation to provide information. Because the vast majority of the nursing staff – 85 to 95 percent – have long been vaccinated. In addition, employees who have not been vaccinated have to be tested far more frequently than those who have been vaccinated. “That is why the facilities actually already know who is vaccinated and who is not,” said a spokeswoman for the German Caritas Association when asked by tagesschau.de. “The vaccination query, at least in care, has little effect on everyday work,” said Caritas. Due to the law, duty rosters do not have to be rewritten.
Most clinic operators see it similarly. According to Asklepios, one of the largest hospital operators in this country, the proportion of non-vaccinated people is negligibly small. More than 90 percent of the employees at the Hamburg site are immunized. The University Hospital Bonn (UKB) even speaks of a vaccination rate among doctors and nurses of almost one hundred percent.
Operators cannot do without a nurse
What if employees who are in close contact with sick people or caregivers still do not get vaccinated? “It is not possible to use unvaccinated nurses in the administration. They would then be missing at the bed,” says Caritas, an association of 6000 different providers in the branch.
A vaccination requirement for nursing staff as in France or Italy cannot be enforced in this country with a view to the shortage of skilled workers, according to the industry, as at least 100,000 nursing staff are already lacking. Even before the pandemic, the burden on nurses and doctors was very high. In this situation it is understandable that neither the legislature nor the employer wanted to alienate employees and potential applicants with compulsory vaccination. In addition, in most cases it is extremely difficult to deploy unvaccinated nurses in other areas.
“To ensure care, the use of all available employees in compliance with hygiene standards is necessary,” explains the Federal Association of Private Providers of Social Services (bpa) – and calls on politicians to “take further measures as a consequence of the query the vaccination status to decide. “
Separate from vaccination refusers only in extreme cases
The hospital operator Rhön-Klinikum, one of the largest in this country, also declares that from the employer’s point of view, there are “no disadvantages” for non-vaccinated people. The Federal Ministry of Health has also ruled out labor law consequences due to the new right to ask questions about the vaccination status. Clinic operators such as Rhön emphasize, however, that increased protective measures such as regular tests and the FFP2 mask requirement are provided in risk-prone areas close to the patient. And in extreme cases, “to protect our patients and employees”, Rhön does not rule out further measures for non-vaccinated employees. In individual cases, this could even go as far as relocations, explains a spokeswoman tagesschau.de.
Occasionally, clinics do not shy away from parting with those who refuse to be vaccinated. The Ludwigshafen Clinic has not extended the so-called “pool contract” for an unvaccinated employee The clinic said that this was not responsible for unvaccinated and that the contract had not been extended.
“Security is not negotiable”
Already in June the Palatinate caused a sensation with the decision not to grant 300 unvaccinated employees either a salary increase or further training. The managing director of the clinic, Hans-Friedrich Günther, said that SWR At that time on request, 300 clinic employees would have refused a corona vaccination without giving reasons. Such “irresponsible behavior” towards the patient is not wanted to be rewarded as well.
“Safety is not negotiable. Patients can rightly expect us as employees in the health care system to do everything possible to offer the greatest possible safety,” wrote Günther in a statement on the clinic’s website. “It is without a doubt that all of our employees, including us in the management bodies, have themselves vaccinated,” said Günther, who has been promoting Covid vaccination among employees since January 2021.
For comparison: In France, where all health care workers have been compulsorily vaccinated since the summer, around 3,000 employees have been suspended since then, as Health Minister Olivier Véran said on Thursday.
No impairments in the schools
In schools, too, the new right to ask questions is unlikely to have any consequences. According to the Hessian Ministry of Culture in Wiesbaden, the law will hardly affect everyday life because only a tiny fraction of the teaching staff has not been vaccinated. Although there is no exact number, the fact that only 40 teachers are currently in quarantine in Hesse is an indication of the extraordinarily high vaccination rate among teachers. In addition, teachers who have not been vaccinated are also allowed to continue teaching in Hesse; they only have to test themselves twice a week, a spokesman said on request. It is therefore not necessary to change the duty roster.
In the opinion of the Education and Science Union (GEW), the debate ignores the real issues. “What we really need are finally air filters in all rooms, comprehensive PCR tests for school children and a uniform and clear guideline for quarantine measures,” said Chairwoman Maike Finnern. In the run-up to the resolutions, the German Teachers’ Association had spoken out against mandatory vaccination information and instead called for the introduction of a consistent 3G rule in schools. In this way, the goal of a high level of health protection could have been achieved in the same way as with the controversial obligation to provide information on vaccinations, said association president Heinz-Peter Meidinger to the newspapers of the Funke media group.