Health-care workers who refuse to get vaccinated should have their licences suspended: Quebec health minister

Montreal -

Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé urged the various professional orders of health-care workers to suspend the licences of those who have still not been vaccinated.

"There is a position that is being developed by the various professional orders and I think that people who thought they could go work elsewhere may be in for a surprise in the next few days," he said at a press conference on Friday at Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur in Montreal.

Quebec has already mandated the suspension without pay for all health care workers who are not vaccinated by Oct. 15.

The province's college of physicians also announced last week that it will suspend the right to practice of its members who refuse to get their two doses, an initiative welcomed by Minister Dubé.

"There is a lot of pressure on the other professional corporations to do the same thing," he said, citing the Ordre des infirmières et infirmiers du Québec and the Ordre professionnel des inhalothérapeutes du Québec.

"I think it's up to them to take a very clear position that people have to be vaccinated to practice healthcare."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Oct. 8, 2021. 

--

This article was produced with financial support from Facebook and The Canadian Press News Fellowships.