We are in the midst of a flu vaccination campaign, and those who want to be immunized must first make a trip to the family doctor’s office. Including the medical staff, who, although they remain free of charge for the vaccine, no longer receive the serum in the hospital, at work. “And that could be a problem, from my point of view”Dr. Alexandru Coman, epidemiologist at the Heart Institute in Cluj Napoca and president of the Association for the Prevention and Control of Infections, said for “Adevărul”.
Doctors no longer have access to vaccination in the hospital, but only to the family doctor. Source: archive
Until two years ago, medical staff were vaccinated in the health facilities where they worked. Vaccines were supplied by the Public Health Directorates directly to hospitals, and immunization was done simply and quickly. Basically, doctors could vaccinate themselves whenever they had five minutes to spare. Dr. Florin Roșu, infectious disease doctor and manager of the Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Iasi, stated for “Adevărul” that the procedure, as long as it existed and worked, was very transparent. “We always had a clear record of vaccination, of vaccinated and unvaccinated personnel. Practically, every season, we had an image of the degree of vaccination of the medical staff in our hospital, and this aspect is very important, especially in an infectious disease hospital”.
“Before, a list was made within the hospital of the doctors who want to be immunized. The list was sent to the DSP, and the DSP sent us the vaccines,” Dr. Alexandru Coman explains the procedure. “And people were actually getting vaccinated, because we are very exposed to the risk of getting sick. Imagine what would have happened if five nurses got sick at the same time and had to stay at home. We couldn’t have worked like that”says Dr. Coman.
Dr. Alexandru Coman, epidemiologist. Photo source: Alexandru Coman/Facebook
“It takes a while to get to the family doctor. And due to lack of time, some of us don’t make it at all”
What is happening now? Vaccination of medical personnel is no longer carried out in the hospital, but in the family doctor’s office or in the office of the specialist who has a contract with the National Insurance House. Doctors are immunized, basically, just like any other citizen.
“For us the vaccine is free. But to get free, I now have to go to my GP and get a prescription. Then, with this prescription I go to the pharmacy to get my vaccine. Then I have to go back to the family doctor’s office to get vaccinated“, continues the epidemiologist.
But this process can “eat” you even half a day, it is cumbersome, it requires time and energy. And doctors don’t really have time to be out and about. “It’s too complicated in my opinion. My mother, for example, does this because she has time, being retired. But for me every hour counts. What solution have we found to save a little more time? I give up free of charge, I go and buy my vaccine from the pharmacy and get immunized at the family doctor”, says Dr. Coman.
But not all medical professionals do so, and many people, due to lack of time, will not get vaccinated at all. “Because of this regulation, this new procedure for the immunization of medical personnel, many doctors and assistants will stop immunizing themselves. They will take risks. The risk of coming into contact with a sick patient and getting sick”, continues the epidemiologist from Cluj.
Dr. Alexandru Coman explains that currently he no longer has a clear situation of the immunized medical staff from the Heart Institute in Cluj Napoca because, at present, everyone gets vaccinated when and how they can. “If until two years ago I, as a hospital epidemiologist, knew what vaccination compliance was in my hospital, now I don’t know anymore. I no longer know how many of the doctors are vaccinated and how many are not”.
“And making them go on a list is irrelevant, because an affidavit has no value. And what should I tell them? To come with evidence from the family doctor? I can’t do that. Therefore, we, at the moment, no longer control the degree of vaccination among our employees”the infectious disease doctor Florin Roșu continues the idea. “Before, we knew everything very clearly, because we were doing this immunization ourselves. And depending on the number of vaccinated doctors, we knew how to distribute them to the wards. I would not, for example, have sent an unvaccinated nurse to the salon of a seriously ill patient with comorbidities, precisely so that there would be no risk that he would become ill in turn. Now I don’t control anything anymore.” says the manager of the Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Iași.
Adrian Marinescu, the medical director of the Institute of Infectious Diseases in Bucharest, stated that the truth is somewhere in the middle. “Indeed, this situation can be a minus. On the other hand, things will get back to normal in a few years. In the sense that everyone will know what they have to do. But I must specify one more aspect: if the epidemiologist in a hospital wants to know the situation of the medical staff, he can access the platform, the automatic system, where the entire record is kept. You will see the exact data there. Because any person, wherever they vaccinate, is introduced into a system. And the epidemiologist has access to this system. They could check the situation of their colleagues”.
Dr. Florin Roșu, infectious disease doctor, manager of the Iași Infectious Diseases hospital. Source: archive
Risks for doctors and patients: “They make each other sick”
And the consequences can be among the most serious. “It makes sense that when doctors stop vaccinating, two big things can happen: either they come into contact with sick patients and get sick, or they come into contact with sick people, get sick and pass the flu on to other patients. And when in the hospital you have patients hospitalized with serious diseases, with chronic diseases who also get sick with the flu, then we could say that we have a problem”. is the opinion of the infectious disease doctor.
Since there is no longer an overview of the degree of vaccination of medical personnel, the risk of illness for doctors and patients increases. “Basically, they can make each other sick. There is this great risk”says Dr. Florin Roșu.
This decision, continued Dr. Alexandru Coman, was probably taken for financial reasons. “That is, they probably think that they finance more easily through the vaccination program, they vaccinate at , family doctors they get paid for this stuff. When we vaccinate our colleagues in the hospital, we vaccinate for free. It is not a reproach. I’m not complaining. I just want to point out that we are talking about a different system. Family doctors work according to different rules, they are a separate entity. But to tell you with certainty the reasons, I could not. We can only speculate,” the specialist also said.
