What does your working day look like?
We arrive at work at seven o’clock and immediately start handling the rest of the day before the phones start ringing. We have working hours until half past three or half past four and then it is overtime. And weekend services. Of course we have paid, but none of us wants more money for overtime.
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We don’t want to work overtime, we can’t anymore. This is already reflected in our families, when men blame their colleagues for the last time they cooked at home two months ago, that only they shop and take care of the children. Since spring, men have been doing everything in our families.
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How much time do you spend on the phone with a caller who has learned that covid is positive?
When someone who has received a positive result calls us, they usually know before we do. Laboratories send the result mainly by SMS message. We don’t see it until a few hours later, when everything is already in the system.
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We have an interview with him, which lasts about 40 minutes. We will explain everything, we will ask about all contacts. People do not give their consent to the use of data from mobile phones. Younger people most often refuse. We try to understand it. People are afraid of the misuse of their personal data. Unnecessarily. All personal data is protected by law. It takes a total of about three hours before everything is stored in the system. It depends on how many contacts the patient had.
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Have you noticed the case of a person who did not observe quarantine and walked among people with a positive result?
I have to admit that people are acting consciously. I have never encountered a case where someone did not obey the ordered quarantine. We can reassure people, tell them what to do, evaluate contacts and connect with them, but we do not recommend them to isolate themselves at home and contact the practitioner.
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People reproach us for not calling their contacts immediately. We talk together on Friday, for example, and we don’t call their contacts until Monday. Therefore, we ask them to notify them themselves before contacting them. There are only six of us here at the station for three Prague districts, before we get to the end of the contact list, it can spill over over the weekend.
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Did your work change during the pandemic?
Spring was easier. People were at home, they went to work as much as possible. But nowadays, all possible family celebrations, social events, are catching up, people work in large groups, in large open rooms. The final number is then huge, even 60 contacts for one positive covid. And these are just people who will emerge from a professionally conducted epidemiological investigation.
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Did people react differently in the first days and weeks of the pandemic?
At the beginning they were grateful, we received letters of thanks, now they are rather angry and impatient. When we put the first information line into operation, our device, the mobile phone we wiped out, left us in a single day. I still remember how our ears really hurt. People were very scared.
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The woman who called to mourn that she was 88 years old and returned from the spa in Třeboň stuck in my memory. This was the time when the Czechs took the disease off their skis. She cried that she must have a coronavirus and she died that everyone around her was telling her. I didn’t know how to calm her down, so I told her that if she didn’t have close contact with an Italian in the spa, she could be fine. And that helped.
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In the last few months, you’ve probably had reason to be upset, what’s upsetting you the most?
We are sorry for two things. In addition, as our work has become monotonous, where we keep repeating the same thing to everyone, we pick up the phones every day, where people sometimes shout at us and vent their anger. The caller once told me that he would come to shoot us here, because no one on the line for a certain Prague had just picked it up. This is terrible, and we have been working in a crazy way for months and doing what we can. Of course, a partial mistake can happen. It may be surprising, we are humans too!
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And the second thing that bothers you?
It happens that people want test recommendations from us without first contacting their general practitioner. We perform this function primarily for foreigners or students who do not have a doctor in Prague. It is necessary to repeat to people that in case of health problems, their GP is the first person they have to contact. During the pandemic, we encountered several cases where the practitioner refused patients and directed them to us. This is then extremely burdensome for hygienists. Practitioners should be more involved in resolving the situation. We really don’t have the capacity to replace this feature.
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How do you personally perceive the pandemic and what it brought?
I’ve been working in epidemiology my whole life and this is not comparable to anything. It has no end. The beginning of the pandemic was a certain adrenaline for us, the situation was dramatic, we experienced everything a lot. However, it has been taking a long time, everything is very monotonous. We keep repeating the same thing, and we have to pay attention to our daily work. Jaundice has not disappeared, as well as indigestion after grilling, we must ensure preventive supervision in medical facilities. We often take our work home, we do it in the evenings, on weekends. In the workplace, covid is an absolute priority.
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