While Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation Victorian branch secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick backed nurses being restricted as to where  they could work if they were unvaccinated, she said that choice should not affect their overall employment prospects.

"Registered nurses and midwives who are not immunised may experience restrictions on where they can work, for their own protection, if there is a risk to their health or their patients' health. We support this public health measure," she said.

"We do not support, however, nurses and midwives' vaccination status being used to discriminate against them in the workplace in any manner that could be deemed unreasonable and outside the scope of protecting their health or their patients' health."

Ms Fitzpatrick's views echo comments made by the secretary of the paramedic's union, Steve McGhie, who said on Monday that ambulance staff who choose not to be vaccinated should not be discriminated against.

He also said a new Ambulance Victoria policy coming into effect next month that required  all new paramedics to be vaccinated could eliminate potentially good staff from the workforce.

Melbourne orthopaedic surgeon John Cunningham, who is calling for all health workers and paramedics in Victoria to be vaccinated as a condition of coming into contact with patients, said such restrictions were a "justified discrimination".

"Safety trumps discrimination," he said.

Mr Cunningham compared vaccination in health workers to to a builder wearing a hard hat on a construction site or a truck driver having a valid licence.

"If people aren't going to vaccinate in this day and age, they should be wondering why they are in the health profession at all," he said.

In New South Wales, unvaccinated health workers are restricted to administration roles, a policy which Mr Cunningham said should be applied to Victoria.

Victoria follows National Health and Medical Research Council recommendations on health worker vaccinations, which let hospitals decide on suitable roles for staff that have not been immunised.

A spokeswoman for Health Minister Jill Hennessy said the government expected all health services to have comprehensive vaccination policies and programs in place for staff. "The national guidelines on health care worker immunisation are very detailed," she said.

Fairfax Media has contacted several major metropolitan hospitals about their staff immunisation policies. Melbourne Health clinical governance and medical services executive director Peter Bradford said Royal Melbourne Hospital required all staff to be assessed for their vaccination status within two weeks of starting work there and provided booster shots free of charge if any were needed.

"The vaccination assessment is a condition of employment across the organisation," Dr Bradford said. "Employees who refuse any recommended vaccine may be subject to work restrictions, required to wear personal protective equipment whilst in contact with patients or may be redeployed from high-risk areas."