As of April 1, it is no longer possible to self-enroll for the free COVID-19 test. GPs will be tested, but also not in every situation and only with antigen tests. PCR tests will not formally disappear, but in practice they will lose their raison d’être, because the National Health Fund has ceased to finance them.
- March 31 at 12, the option to sign up for the free COVID-19 test was disabled
- From now on, you can test yourself free of charge only in a medical facility, but you must meet certain conditions, which will be decided by the doctor
- Only rapid antigen tests are available at POZ
- PCR tests can still be ordered, but due to their exclusion from financing by the National Health Fund, they would have to be paid for by the ordering party (e.g. hospital), the health care center or the patient
- More information can be found on the Onet homepage
GPs will test
According to the Ministry of Health, from today, i.e. April 1, free tests for the presence of coronavirus can only be performed on the orders of a doctor. This means that nIt is no longer possible to sign up for a COVID-19 test by yourself using the website www.gov.pl. If someone obtained a referral for a PCR test this way, the time to report to the collection point was until March 31. From now on, it is also no longer possible to perform a free test in pharmacies.
- Read also: Free COVID-19 tests in pharmacies. “I have concerns about the implementation of the government idea”
Since April, the only way to get tested for SARS-CoV-2 at no cost is through a doctor. At the primary health care (POZ) level, your GP may refer you for a test. It will be a quick antigen test, available free of charge at every health care clinic. Its result will go to EWP and will be visible on the Patient’s Internet Account. The medics were given detailed guidelines on the situations in which patients should be referred for examination. We wrote about the details here.
Importantly, as before, so now asymptomatic and contact persons who suspect SARS-CoV-2 infection will not be able to test themselves in primary health care. Online registration was available for them. Now that she’s gone they will have to do a coronavirus test for a fee or purchasing a home antigen test.
- Check it out: Home tests for COVID-19. How to do them? What mistakes to avoid?
The rest of the text below the video.
Tests for COVID-19 will also be ordered in hospitals. Doctors here have two paths. The first is an antigen test, the second – a PCR test, but in this case the order must be clinically justified. The Ministry does not recommend referring every person hospitalized with upper respiratory tract infections and accompanying infections for the test fever. The final assessment of the situation will be with the doctor.
«The PCR test can be ordered by the doctor before admission to the hospital if he deems it necessary. The PCR test will be used in the event of definitive confirmation or exclusion of whether the symptoms of respiratory tract infections with which the patient has entered the hospital are caused by the coronavirus »- we read on the government website dedicated to coronavirus.
In the current recommendations for the management of covid patients, it can be read that in the case of people who require hospitalization and complain about the worsening of symptoms of respiratory tract infections, the doctor may use a quick antigen or genetic test. “RT-PCR may be considered if the antigen test or RT-LAMP test is negative in people with persistent disease symptoms,” RT-PCR may be considered, “it said.
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The COVID-19 Real-Time PCR test can be performed at selected drive thru points of the Diagnostics network.
PCR is subject to conditions
In practice, however, PCR tests will be ordered very rarely. Why? Since the ordinance of the President of the National Health Fund was amended, concerning, inter alia, accounting for healthcare services related to the fight against COVID-19. The new regulations do not include the payment of antigen tests by the National Health Fund (PLN 23-35) and PCR tests, the costs of which ranged from PLN 42 to PLN 197.
Routine examination of patients in hospitals is therefore out of the question, as the costs of the test would have to be covered by the facilities themselves. However, in justified cases, ordering PCR also causes problems, because only the doctor decides whether there are clinical indications or not.
Interestingly, the information obtained by the Law.pl website shows that even if the samples are taken and sent to the health center, theoretically, the sanitary inspection should pay for the examination. “This means that you will have to wait a long time for the result, but also pay for the transport of the collected material”indicated.
– In practice, a person who believes that he or she has COVID-19 symptoms should test for their own money – said Dobrawa Biadun, a legal advisor specializing in health protection law, in an interview with Praw.pl. – Everything indicates that the government does not have the money for testing, so the Ministry of Health announced not only the end of the pandemic, but also the end of COVID-19. So we will not know how many infected we have, all statistics will cease to have any value – says attorney Biadun.
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