The obligation to vaccinate for healthcare professionals throughout Italy started over a month ago, when the Covid decree came into force, which introduced it as early as the beginning of April. But, numbers in hand – according to the latest report on vaccinations published on the government website – there are still 85 thousand operators who “resist” and have not immunized, this is almost 5% of the total health personnel in Italy. Not exactly a good sign for the general vaccination campaign of the rest of the Italians, who are already beginning to give some signs of slowing down because the more you go down with age, the greater the resistance to vaccination.
Of course, not all the 85 thousand health workers counted are probably against vaccinating and in the coming weeks the number will substantially decrease, but the phenomenon appears much larger than expected and so it turns out that there are also practical difficulties in enforcing the vaccination obligation because the approved law provides for complications, loopholes, bureaucracy and is too “vague” on the possibility of exclusion from the obligation, as well as on the number of operators involved which is not exactly well defined.
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An articulated bureaucratic process
As always in Italy, the classic complications office also starts with the new rules: the rules provide for the sending of lists of their employees by the health structures to the Regions within 5 days from the entry into force of the law. days should verify the fulfillment of the obligation and then send the names of the defaulters to the ASL. At this point, the health authorities invite people to provide, within 5 days of the communication, documentation proving the vaccination carried out or, in case of deferral, the request made or the documents necessary for the impossibility of carrying it out. At the end of the five days, if a reply has not been produced, the ASL will “formally invite the person concerned to undergo the vaccination, indicating the methods and terms within which to fulfill the obligation”.
After vaccination, the necessary attestation documents must be sent within three days. Otherwise (ie refusal of the vaccine) the ASL will transmit the news of the non-compliance to the person concerned, to the workplace and to the professional association.
Difficulties in moving to other tasks
In short, a gymnastics, which are also followed by other complications: the same law provides that the employer, before proceeding to the extreme solution of the suspension from work of the healthcare professional who has not vaccinated himself with a stop to the salary, must first try , to move the operator to another task not in contact with patients. An easy solution to say but really complicated to do because in a hospital, clinic or RSA it is really difficult to find activities that do not involve contact with patients. The fear then is that of having to face legal disputes.