Short self-extracts with medical approval for flu-covid combo

Rising cases of flu, Covid and other respiratory illnesses are keeping Spaniards on edge during the height of the Christmas festivities. And with them, primary health care, already stressed in itself, which resists request volume in the last days of the year. The situation that the professionals highlighted, emphasizing the contradictory recommendations that the professionals themselves usually offer on these dates: “Don’t go to work with symptoms, but if they are mild, don’t go to the health center.” so as not to overload.” Is this an opportunity to re-discuss automatic reduction?

This is the dilemma posed nurse Hector Castineira, which reminds that evidence must be presented at work whenever the employee does not report to work. Better known as the Busy Nurse, on her X (formerly Twitter) profile she ponders the solution: “responsible declaration” -as is already done in many European countries – so that “Have the opportunity to be absent for 3-4 days for minor processes that can be treated at home. But it’s not here yet the patient has no alternative“.

A few months ago, the Primary Care Forum raised the possibility of giving a worker the “right” to self-discharge for up to three days in common unforeseen circumstances, given “difficulty of access” to primary health care

and thus avoid requests to obtain “immediate” medical certificate. However, this is an alternative that many patients exclude due to “society itself” and which Familia considers a “complicated” issue, since since there is still no regulation in this regard at the state level, it depends on each company.

Make self-discharge viable on social media

As the family doctor explains Juan Sergio Fernandez To Medical letterduring strong time of pandemic In some autonomous communities normative allowing the employee to request self-discharge. But at present”there is no regulation which confirms absence from work and can be justified by the employee himself.

In the debate over whether this should be considered make the model viablethis specialist firmly states that “yes, without a doubt.” “I want to think about patient responsibility and employers in the sense that they should trust them when an employee calls their company and reports that he has a temperature of 40. At the very least, this should be enough for him to missing for three days work with this self-justification. Starting from the fourth day, it will be medical intervention required this would justify a longer absence,” Fernandez emphasized.

This measure will be a way to ease the pressure on health care experienced by Emergency services, both from medical centers and hospitals. “This regulation would not only be viable, but desirable to avoid these collapses.” In Andalusia, as this doctor added, emergency departments are “totally saturated” after 15:00, which is the time when these services begin and where there is already 15-20 patients with a pending case of influenza. “This is 90 percent of cases,” he clarified.

But, if in hypothetical case If this regulation came back, there would be workers who could take advantage of it. In this sense, Fernandez emphasized that, in his opinion, “the vast majority I’m not going to lie

”, but it must be recognized that some people may use this “escape” route to justify unjustified absence from work. “Statistically, there will be those who lie. “We’re not going to kid ourselves,” he admitted.

In this sense, his colleague Marga Jaume believes that “we must be aware of where we live.” “I don’t know to what extent people could also invent symptoms,” the specialist adds. However, despite the fact that he considers it a “double-edged sword”, he also considers it “viable” and very interesting for relaxing the Primary at this time. To make it safer for the patient, he believes that it can be supplemented with other measures to ensure reliability of symptoms. “For example, pharmacies have already helped during the pandemic, you can ask for a photo of a positive test taken by a positive person there to ensure that you are not making up symptoms and that the system is issuing leave for the specific days needed,” he notes.

Self-discharge for chronic pathologies

family doctor Balearic Islands believes that pilot project at the level of seasonal respiratory pathology as a testing method. “If we later see that this is viable, we will expand it to other minor pathologies such as migraine,” he notes. “I have a patient who migraine attacks At times they incapacitate her so much that she can’t even get into the car, if for some reason she can’t contact the medical center, I can’t cancel because he doesn’t show up. “I know he’s not lying to me, that he only needs two days, and I see chronic illness as a good example.”