The management of the CHU of Guadeloupe denounced this Wednesday a “massive absenteeism rate” among its staff, suspecting “stops of convenience” and leading it to consider “entering the council of the Order of Physicians”.
According to local hospital authorities, the rate of absenteeism “in some nursing services is around 30%” with work stoppages which have been increasing in recent days. The Guadeloupe hospital center however emphasizes “a compliance rate of more than 80% with vaccine obligations” related to Covid-19 of the staff of the establishment, against 30% in mid-September.
“Judgments of convenience”
“The number of sick leaves observed since October 25 is abnormally high during this period, compared with the identical periods of past years”, underlined the director of the CHU, Gérard Cotellon, detecting an “inexplicable absenteeism other than by stops of convenience ”. According to him, “the CHU is forced to pool several surgical and medical services as part of a business continuity plan”.
He also called on “all prescribing health professionals to fully assume the responsibilities” and reserved “the right to seize the council of the Order of Physicians and the general social security fund of Guadeloupe about this situation” .
Six hundred suspended caregivers
The deputy director of the Pointe-à-Pitre / Abymes University Hospital, Cédric Zolezzi, quipped: “It’s very surprising that everyone falls ill on the same date in such proportions”. “We can imagine gestures of solidarity or protest even if these people would be in order for what concerns them personally,” he continued, while the social situation in Guadeloupe has become tense in recent weeks against the background. challenges to the vaccination obligation of caregivers.
About 600 of them were suspended, out of 3,300 agents, said Mr. Zolezzi, arguing that regularizations were also taking place “every day”, ending the suspensions.
“They have the change of their coin” because “80% of people who have been vaccinated have been under duress”, for his part commented Gaby Clavier, union representative of UTS UGTG at the CHU.