On March 1, 2022, the obligation to vaccinate against COVID-19 for selected professional groups is to enter into force. Among them are health care workers, including unvaccinated people in this group. What could the effect of this be? – Workers will leave and work in places where employers do not require immunization. There is such a large shortage of nurses, doctors and paramedics on the labor market that they will surely find a job quickly – believes the drug. Anna Krzyszowska-Kamińska, family doctor running her own practice.
- The obligation to vaccinate against COVID-19 for healthcare professionals is expected to enter into force in March 2022.
- The government has not yet presented details on this matter, and works are underway on appropriate regulations
- Bow. Anna Krzyszowska-Kamińska believes that introducing mandatory vaccinations will not convince those who doubt their effectiveness
- The new regulations may result in the outflow of medical personnel to places where vaccinations are not required
- More information can be found on the Onet homepage
Paulina Wójtowicz / MedTvoiLokony: As announced by the government, from March 1 this year. health care workers will be subject to compulsory COVID-19 vaccination. Are you for or against?
Bow. Anna Krzyszowska-Kamińska: As an employer – for, as a doctor – against.
Where does this discrepancy come from?
I run my own GP practice, I employ doctors, nurses, midwife, registrar and administrative staff. It would be nice if I had the right to require them to be vaccinated. It is the safety of all of us, because we move in the same spaces and the same patients who come to us. It would also protect me against possible claims of patients claiming that they contracted the infection with us because the staff was unvaccinated. However, as a doctor, I know that if we force someone to do something and he is not convinced, we will never get a good result. There will be a rash of “side effects” and complaints after vaccination.
Do you have people who have not been vaccinated among your employees?
I had. The wonderful nurse who ran the vaccination center. I took her away from vaccinations and, unfortunately, she resigned. Certainly, this was combined with work overload and enormous stress that accompanies us at work. A very sad situation.
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In Germany, trade unions warn against introducing compulsory vaccinations for nurses, claiming that in this group not only will they not significantly increase the vaccination rate, but will also cause more people to leave the profession. As a result, the overloaded system will be additionally reduced by specialist personnel. Is such a scenario real after March 1 in Poland?
I think the scenario will be similar in many practices. Workers will be leaving and hiring where employers do not require immunization. There is a large area of naturotherapy where doctors and nurses are needed, and this is where the anti-vaccine people usually come, so the lack of certification among the staff will not bother anyone. There is such a large shortage of nurses, doctors and paramedics on the labor market that they will surely find a job quickly.
- See also: Mandatory vaccinations against COVID-19? It is not a new thing for doctors, but another vaccination
How did your colleagues react to the government’s announcements?
We all have an ambivalent attitude towards them. Those in favor of vaccinations believe it would be good if all health care professionals were vaccinated. These doubting coercion will certainly not convince them of anything.
There are many of them?
We are all vaccinated among my friends, doctors, but in the whole community it is a certain group, and influential people are also a part of it. For example, in my country, in Lower Silesia, there is a well-known doctor, a very – let’s call it – naturotherapeutic, whose close person died from COVID-19, and she still advises patients not to vaccinate against this disease.
What arguments does he give?
He claims that it is unexplored and that it is gene manipulation, even though we know it is not. Her patients come to me and ask what to do, because the doctor advises against vaccinating.
Patients often come to doctors with doubts on this topic?
Yes, which is actually positive information, because if they ask, it means that they are open to discussion and we have a chance to convince them. It has never happened to me that in my office I did not convince someone to vaccinate, of course, using absolutely substantive arguments. I always say that I have thoroughly researched the topic, read the current reports, and on this basis, I believe that vaccinations are safe. And that I vaccinated all my relatives, including parents and daughters. The last argument in particular works on the imagination, because many people take the voices of anti-vaccines very seriously about the effects of vaccines on the reproductive performance of young people.
- See also: Anti-vaccinees are given to the doctor. “They wish they had vaccinated”
Coming back to the vaccination obligation, do you think this is a good time to introduce it?
In my opinion, it is absolutely too late. It had to be done in the summer. Then we would have time to prepare for what is happening now. Vaccinations from March can only prepare us for the next wave of the pandemic. I hope that by that time we will create, as a society, such a high population immunity that the coronavirus will join the group of viruses with which we live every day, and which cause at most light, seasonal colds, and not numerous hospitalizations and deaths, yes as it is now.
How do you assess the current government actions in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland?
Critically. I believe they are not there. I go to a hypermarket where three-quarters of people are without face masks, and 19 or 500 people die of COVID-600 every day. Now I cannot “cram” the patient into boarding school, because there aren’t any internal medicine beds – everything is covid. For me, what is currently happening in Poland is a failure. Yesterday my friend waited six hours for an ambulance to practice, which was to take a covid patient from her, who still came, but should not return home. A blocked office, a six-hour heavy patient waiting, a tragedy.
- Also read: New restrictions will improve the epidemic situation in Poland? The virologist answers
What would you say to Minister Niedzielski if you could talk to him?
I would say I have a great regret that it is such a mess. Everything that others cannot settle descends to us, to the POZ. The National Health Fund (NFZ) constantly sends patients to health care institutions, we do not have any legal tools to deal with it. There is an eternal mess. It is bad to work, patients are dying, I think it is terrible.
What should change the fastest?
First of all, restrictions. They have to be more restrictive. Masks wherever possible and properly worn. Disinfection and distance, but true, not pretend. Closed for two weeks – to stem the tide – anything that can be closed without negatively impacting the economy. This is an absolute basis.
- More about the new rules: Mandatory vaccinations for healthcare professionals, teachers and military personnel
Do you want to test your COVID-19 immunity after vaccination? Have you been infected and want to check your antibody levels? See the COVID-19 immunity test package, which you will perform at Diagnostics network points.
Read also:
- Uniformed services are less vaccinated than medics and teachers
- A Medical Council expert assessed the new restrictions: dead regulations
- What’s next for the COVID-19 pandemic? Minister Niedzielski: forecasts are not optimistic
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