If you have been to a country where the coronavirus is spreading and has symptoms of the virus, then you might be inclined to rush to the doctor to be checked.
But don’t let that happen.
This is what the call for the Danish Society for General Medicine reads.
They have sent a letter to the practitioners, where they have attached a sign that doctors can print out and hang on the doors of their clinics.
The sign says ‘STOP’ and patients are encouraged to go home and call if they have symptoms of the virus and have been in one of the countries where there is spread of infection.
It is an attempt to limit any risk of infection, says Anders Beich, a practicing physician and chairman of the Danish Society for General Medicine.
– If you go directly to the doctor and enter the waiting room, you are at risk of infecting a large number of people.
“It would be the most inconvenient thing that could happen for the doctor’s waiting room to become a place of infection,” he says.
When should you not step up?
The sign urges patients to stay away from the waiting room if they have the symptoms of coronavirus and have stayed in either Northern Italy, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea or Iran within the past 14 days.
Symptoms include fever, cough, swelling pain and breathing problems. If you have been in contact with someone who is suspected of being infected, you should also contact the doctor by phone rather than physically.
In the letter from the Danish Society for General Medicine, there is also advice on what doctors should do if a patient nevertheless enters the door that may have a coronavirus.
But not all medical practices are capable of managing an infected patient, says Anders Beich.
– It is the Danish Regions that have to send it to us, and there have been delivery problems and distribution problems, so that all practices do not have the necessary equipment, he says.
This applies, among other things, to his own practice.
– We haven’t got it here with us yet, so we’re kind of looking at it if a patient arrives who could be infected.
Call and be advised
Today, the first Dane has been found infected with coronavirus. He and his family are in the home quarantine.
If you suspect that you are infected with the virus, contact your own doctor, the emergency physician or the Capital Region emergency telephone 1813.
– Then it is from the advice that you find out what should happen in the given case, says Anders Beich.
The corona virus has cost more than 2,700 people globally – the vast majority in China. In addition, more than 81,000 are infected. No Danes have been found infected, although several have been tested.
After the spread of the virus in northern Italy, where many Danes go on a skiing holiday, the hospitals have tested several and experienced an increasing number of inquiries from concerned doctors.
