A GP doctor can refer you for a free test. What to do if you don’t know who your GP is? [WE EXPLAIN]

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What should we do when we experience COVID-19 symptoms? According to the recommendations of the Ministry of Health, we should immediately contact a primary care physician who may refer us for a test. What to do when we have not chosen a primary care physician or we do not remember who it is? We advise.

1. As part of teleportation, the family doctor may order a coronavirus test, and his order is visible in the system for swab points throughout Poland – says family doctor, Dr. Paweł Lewek
2. The name of your primary care physician (as well as a nurse and midwife) can be found on the website patient.gov.pl. We will choose a doctor at the same address or change to a different one
3. On the website patient.gov.pl you will also find a list of primary health care facilities, an e-visit application form, and a XNUMX-hour hotline number
4. Only GPs from health care facilities that have a contract with the National Health Fund can order free tests – emphasizes Dr. Lewek
5. You can find more such tips on the TvoiLokony home page

In the age of teleporting, the place of residence and registration are not important

Imagine a situation that we find ourselves far from the place where we are registered and there are disturbing symptoms of infection. Does this mean our chances of getting a free test? Not. In the era of digitization, it does not matter where we get sick and how far our family doctor is.

– During a pandemic, contacts with a family doctor are largely remote, and there is no division in the health care system according to where you live or where you are registered. If we live, for example, in Warsaw, we can call our family doctor, whom we chose in our previous place of residence – says Dr. Paweł Lewek, family doctor from the Le-Med clinic in Łódź. – As part of the teleportation, the doctor may order a coronavirus test and his order will be visible in the system, also for the swab point located in Warsaw.

So as long as we only remember the name of our doctor, the matter is simple. A primary care physician may order a coronavirus test via the salon.gov.pl application. The Ministry of Health has prepared specific recommendations in this regard.

First, the patient must have symptoms specific to COVID-19, such as:

1. fever,
2. dyspnoea,
3. cough,
4. loss of smell or taste
5. or when they don’t get all of these symptoms at once, but have an infection.

Then the patient contacts the primary care physician and sets a date for personal advice or teleportation.

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If we have these symptoms, the primary care physician orders a test via the salon.gov.pl application. It also informs the patient about mobile collection points (so-called drive thru) where the test can be performed and informs the patient about the need to avoid public transport.

Doctors advise to use a health care clinic in your area

– However, it is much more beneficial for the patient to have his family doctor nearby. Should anything happen, should the patient’s condition worsen, the physician knows the local environment, knows the hospitals and can guide him properly. It is best to choose a new family doctor in your area, in your local community, advises Dr. Lewek.

Who is my GP?

– You must have a patient’s account established on the basis of a trusted profile – explains Dr. Lewek. – Via the website patient.gov.pl. We submit an e-declaration by entering all the necessary data as if we were writing a paper declaration. Only we do not have to take it to the clinic, we send it, signing it with a trusted profile. We select the clinic and send an e-declaration on the same page. It is best to inform the health care facility about your decision. This practice was adopted in our clinic. Later, the clinic has to accept the declaration that it sees on the web for its part. Enter a new patient into his database and at this point he can benefit from the advice of a new family doctor.

In case of any doubts, all necessary information can be found at www.pacjnet.gov.pl. There is a list of POZ facilities, an e-visit application form if we want to use on-line advice and a XNUMX-hour hotline number.

1. The doctor’s appeal: help us, create a patient’s account

– Only GPs from health care facilities that have an agreement with the National Health Fund can order free tests – adds Dr. Lewek – and the smear referral is currently tantamount to imposing quarantine on the person referred from the day following the referral date. It is also worth preparing for the smear properly: at least two hours before the examination, do not eat, drink, chew gum, rinse your mouth and nose, do not brush your teeth, take medication or smoke.

If the patient goes by car to the drive thru point, he must remember to take a photo ID and PESEL number with him as well as the test order number. On the spot, we do not get out of the car, and the swab is taken through the open window of the car.

See also:

1. COVID-19 has more serious complications than the flu
2. What to do when you notice the first symptoms of coronavirus? [WE EXPLAIN]
3. How does the body of “super-carriers” spread the coronavirus? Scientists explain
4. «During the lockdown, the number of infections will drop dramatically. But it won’t do us any good »

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