This nurse’s long Covid, caught in her hospital, not recognized as an occupational disease

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The administrative court of Orléans (Loiret) has just refused to recognize ” occupational disease ” THE ” Long Covid » which a nurse at the Dreux hospital (Eure-et-Loir) had contracted.

She had contracted it, however. at his workplace in April 2020at the very beginning of the pandemic.

Tested positive on April 11, 2020 at the start of the pandemic

A nurse since 2006 at the hospital, L. XXX had in fact been “ tested positive for Covid ” on April 11, 2020, reports the administrative court of Orleans in its judgment. She had therefore, initially, been placed on sick leave the same dayand this until May 10, 2020.

Then, his decision had been ” regularly renewed ” repeatedly until May 31, 2021that is to say during more than a yearThis woman, now 41 years old, had therefore filed “a request for recognition of her sick leave and treatment as an occupational disease” and hoped to receive full pay during her sick leave.

An “illness contracted in the service”… but not professional

THE May 25, 2021the Eure-et-Loir departmental reform commission had issued ” a favorable opinion » to the management of his stops and his care under a « illness contracted in service“, but she had given a ” unfavorable opinion ” to the recognition of a occupational disease.

The director of the Dreux hospital center subsequently followed this “advice” of the reform commission: on three occasions, the June 2, 7 and August 3, 2021he had pronounced the “recognition of the disease contracted in service” but had refused to see it as an “occupational disease”.

“Strong uncertainties” about the evolution of his state of health

L. XXX, who was appointed to the hospital civil service in 2009, three years after her arrival at the Dreux hospital center, therefore brought the case before the Orléans administrative court to have these decisions annulled.

She actually has “many symptoms” of long Covid, which involve “ strong uncertainties about the evolution of his state of health“. And “some caregivers from other establishments (…) benefited from a [telle] recognition (…) concerning long Covid,” she insisted.

The final choice rests with the hospital center

The fact remains that the reform commission “limits itself to issuing an opinion on the coverage of leave and care for illnesses contracted in service or occupational illnesses”, the administrative court of Orléans begins by recalling. Its “opinion” aims simply to ” lighting up the Dreux hospital center“, which remains “the authority invested with the power of decision”. This “opinion” therefore does not constitute an administrative “decision” strictly speaking which would be ” subject to legal recourse” .

For the rest, the decree on the recognition of pathologies linked to Covid-19 as occupational diseases has ” inserted (…) a table of occupational disease (…) ” Acute respiratory illnesses linked to SARS-COV2 infection“, the magistrates explain.

This table specifies that the infection must be confirmed by biological examination or scanner or, failing that, by a documented clinical history (hospitalization report, medical documents). It must have required oxygen therapy or any other form of ventilatory assistance, attested by medical reports, or have resulted in death.

A limited list of works

The same also draws up a ” limited list “work likely to cause this disease”, including those ” carried out in person by healthcare staff (…) within (…) hospital establishments”.

However, the long Covid pathology presented by Ms. XXX has not not required the treatments set out in the decree“, the judges noted.

The nurse is therefore “not justified” in claiming that her sick leave and her care “should have been covered as an occupational disease”.

CB (PressPepper for Chartres news)

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