© BELGA
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The proposal by the Minister of Health Frank Vandenbroucke (Vooruit) is being criticized for the recognition of healthcare providers who have not been vaccinated against corona by 1 April. Because what is the added value, in times of staff shortage?
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“That profession is your choice, and that comes with an obligation. If you are admitted to a hospital or if your mother is going to live in a residential care center, you still want it to be safe there.” Vandenbroucke, for example, defends his proposal to make vaccination mandatory for healthcare personnel, and as a consequence of that, withdraw the recognition of unvaccinated healthcare providers.
But that proposal has been criticized. “First of all: we also think that there is no reason not to get vaccinated,” says Jan-Piet Bauwens, federal secretary of the socialist trade union BBTK. “But those people have been working hard in healthcare for a year and a half, and had to continue to work due to the staff shortage even if they were infected with corona. Now to keep non-infected people out of the rooms, no. There is now enough protective equipment, they are constantly disinfecting their hands.”
Bauwens argues in favor of addressing the unvaccinated healthcare workers individually. “This way you can motivate them and make it clear to them that they are endangering themselves and their families, and their patients. In a residential care center in Schaerbeek, the management has thus succeeded in boosting the vaccination rate from below 50 to 100 percent. We better focus on that.”
(kba)
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