Quick pads yes or no, in the clinics of general practitioners? The discussion is very heated between trade unions and medical associations, but it is also necessary to understand the repercussions on the hundreds of citizens who do not know how to access the test. Let’s start from the beginning. The largest union of family doctors, the Fimmg, has just signed, with the central institutions, a protocol that provides for the possibility, indeed the obligation for these doctors to perform rapid tests on the following types of people: the close, asymptomatic contacts of positive individuals; the patients they visit, perhaps for other diseases; positive contacts, upon expiration of isolation.
–
Who does not fit
But the other unions are not there, especially the Snami, which is very strong in Lombardy, a region, at this time, “special sick”. According to the national president, Angelo Testa, there is a high risk of contagion for doctors and could lead many of them, as they grow older, to retire, thus depriving health care at a critical moment. So let’s see what the Scientific Society, which groups more than 10 thousand general practitioners (out of over 50 thousand in Italy), Simg, and the newly elected president of the Order of Doctors of Milan, one of the cities in the odor of lockdown, think. Claudio Cricelli, president of Simg, says: “General medicine has been very neglected in recent years, but in this moment of emergency, if it has to make an effort, it does. Not all doctors can safely perform this test, but those who can do it should. And at least 25-30 per cent of health workers have adequate facilities. It is a question of solidarity and civil conscience: no one can back down ».
–
Sense of responsibility
Faced with this call to arms by Cricelli, which relies on the sense of responsibility of doctors and evokes the famous Hippocratic Oath, which all doctors trust, Roberto Carlo Rossi, newly elected president, responds with a certain pragmatism of modern times of the Order of Doctors of Milan, a city under siege by Coronavirus. “There are at least three types of problems that make it difficult to perform these tests”confirms Rossi. «The first: the presence, in the clinic, of people waiting for tests, and potentially positive, can involve a risk for other patients. The second: we are not equipped with protective devices (unless we buy them from us: we are talking about suits, masks, gloves and so on): let’s not forget that at least one out of ten patients, during the swab, has the reflection of cough and, therefore, can transmit droplets contaminated with the virus. And thirdly, there is a problem of timing: if I am busy with all this, how can I care for patients with other diseases? ‘
–
Potential Risks
A collateral aspect, but no less important, also concerns the potential environmental and public health risks. Many medical practices, especially in Milan, are located in condominiums that have their own safety rules. From many sides, among general practitioners, it is noted that one in five people test positive for the swab and this person, to get to the doctor’s office, uses, for example, the elevators of the condominium or runs through other common areas. Risking to spread the virus. It is also worth hearing a voice “from the field” of a general practitioner who has been working in Milan for several years and who, in this Covid emergency, also initially volunteered and, moreover, is infected. His name is Franco Marchetti. “Swabs in the clinic are a problem due to the risk of contagion, especially since we should, in the meantime, also get vaccines against influenza and pneumococcus (responsible for pneumonia, ed) in “fragile” people, especially the elderly or with chronic diseases, who arrive at the clinic. It would be better to have these swabs available when we go to visit patients at home, also for their contacts ». And he, after the phone call on Monday evening, was going there.
–
–
November 2, 2020 (change November 2, 2020 | 21:56)
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED
–
