Hospital GmbH: With compulsory vaccination, ten percent of employees are getting tight

Created: 01/17/2022, 08:00

By: Sebastian Tauchnitz

The nursing director of the hospital GmbH, Anne Ertel, and the medical director of the Schongau hospital, Prof. Reinhold Lang.

© Berndt/Hospital GmbH

It's getting serious: From March 15, 2022, facility-related corona vaccination will be mandatory for employees in the healthcare sector.

The hospital GmbH is of course also affected.

Ten percent of the employees there have not yet been vaccinated.

District

– In December there was clarity.

At the entrance, every employee of the Hospital GmbH Weilheim-Schongau had to prove whether they were vaccinated or not.

"It was required by law.

But that also gave us a precise overview of where we stood," says the medical director of the Schongau hospital, Prof. Reinhold Lang, in an interview with the local newspaper.

All vaccination certificates have been checked

We played it safe during the inspection: all the certificates that were presented were checked online for their validity.

None of the employees cheated, adds nursing director Anne Ertel.

She sounds relieved when she says that.

Since then it has been clear who can just go to work as a booster and who without sufficient vaccination protection has to carry out a daily rapid test and a PCR test two to three times a week in order to work in the hospital.

But it will not stop there: From March 16, 2022, only fully vaccinated employees may be employed in the hospitals.

Two doctors still unvaccinated

"Our vaccination rate is 90 percent, which is above the average for other hospitals," says Ertel. All but two of the doctors have been vaccinated, adds Lang. This results in a vaccination rate of 99 percent. 90 percent of the nursing staff, who make up the majority of the employees, is 90 percent, while the vaccination rate for the other employees – administrative staff, cleaning staff and caretakers – is “roughly at the level of the entire population,” says Ertel.

This means that of the approximately 1,300 employees at the Weilheim-Schongau GmbH hospital, around 130 are currently not yet vaccinated.

And so in mid-March they are about to end their careers.

"We will not release an unvaccinated person," says the medical director.

But according to the law, the unvaccinated employees should no longer be employed.

That is why they are released unpaid.

Simply changing and working elsewhere will hardly be possible, Lang continues.

“Vaccination is mandatory in the entire health sector.

That means you have to learn a whole new job and switch industries if you don’t want to get vaccinated.”

Hope that as few employees as possible quit

An immense encroachment on the personal rights of healthcare workers, but a necessary one for Prof. Lang: "I'm passionate about compulsory vaccination in the healthcare sector, I support it 100 percent." It's simply a question of responsibility: "We're taking seriously ill people here around. Older patients are cared for in old people's homes. According to my medical ethics, there is no alternative to compulsory vaccination. Because it has been proven that fully vaccinated people have a significantly lower viral load even in the event of an infection, i.e. they are significantly less contagious.”

Nevertheless, Nursing Director Anne Ertel makes no secret of the fact that compulsory vaccination is quite frustrating for her: “We have been toiling for years to find enough nursing staff for the two hospitals.

And now we will lose employees as a result of this regulation.

I hope as few as possible.”

That's why she sought a conversation with the unvaccinated colleagues.

"You can't achieve anything aggressively," she said - also with a view to the public debate.

She acted with empathy and was able to convince a number of employees.

"But you don't have to fool yourself:" Of those who were still vaccinated, none of them did it with a smile.

Most were single parents and needed the income.”

Novavax vaccination date planned

Nevertheless, the hospital GmbH still has high hopes for the introduction of the new vaccine "Novavax".

It was recently registered and should be delivered at the end of January.

"We then prepared a Novavax vaccination appointment for the employees who were waiting for it in early February," says Ertel.

That would just about suffice: the first vaccination at the beginning of February, the second vaccination three weeks later, and two more weeks later are considered to be fully vaccinated.

The hospital GmbH, it is highly unlikely that it will have to cancel any beds or close any wards because it will run out of employees due to the obligation to vaccinate, Ertel predicts.

Although it is incomprehensible to her "that politicians decide to make vaccination compulsory for the health sector, but at the same time do not relax the lower care limits."

The hospital GmbH is still hiring staff.

However, only vaccinated.

This is required by law, according to Ertel.

And also possible, as the last “Monday for Jobs” from the hospital GmbH showed.

Eight new nurses signed their new employment contracts with the hospital GmbH at the beginning of last week.