On Thursday, health care workers held a last minute of silence to commemorate the contributions of staff across the Grand Duchy this year. The daily lives of hospitals and care homes have now been influenced by the pandemic for over 22 months, pressure that is currently also felt by some GPs.
Dr David Heck, who works in Mersch, commented on the record-breaking infection numbers of the past days: “We feel that the virus is more distributed across the population than ever before. Everyday we have people contacting and asking us about positive rapid tests. When we then prescribe a PCR test, most of them also come back positive.”
In general, not many coronavirus patients have to be hospitalised, which makes the situation different than the one experienced around this time last year. Nevertheless, due to safety procedures, GPs still see fewer patients on a daily basis than in pre-pandemic times.
Dr Heck explained that his office reserves two to three days per week just for Covid vaccinations: “I have to praise our secretaries for organising the logistics of these appointments. In the case of the Pfizer vaccine, the six-dose bottle has to be used within the span of six hours only. The Moderna one on the other hand contains 20. That means many appointments and a lot of work, but it is worth it.”
The GP underlined that people are often more at ease to get vaccinated at the office they know. This of course means that patients often have to wait a little longer to get an appointment. In terms of capacities, GPs cannot compete with the country’s central vaccination centres.
Dr Stéphanie Obertin, president of the General Practitioner’s Cercle, wants more doctors to participate in the vaccination offer, especially since more doses will be made available to them: “At the moment we are a little short, but the situation should improve in the coming weeks.” Dr Obertin also drew attention to the fact that there is a shortage of needles.
Right now, about 250 GPs offer to administer Covid-19 vaccines to their patients. As of this week, a selected number of paediatricians provide a similar offer to children aged five and older.
