Primary Care carried out a total of 12,587 telephone consultations to a total of 1,250 patients in Lanzarote during the month of March, compared to the 940 that occurred in the same month of the previous year.
In this regard, the Lanzarote Health Services Management indicates that the operation of the Primary Care centers has been adapted to the new conditions derived from the state of alarm caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic to meet the demands of citizens in this health field.
Thus, and following the recommendations of the Ministry of Health to avoid concentrations of people in order to minimize the risk of contagion and try to protect healthcare personnel, most of the healthcare activity is being carried out by telephone, in many cases to people who are suspected of suffering from this disease but only have mild symptoms, so they are not being tested.
Staff reorganization
Along these lines, since this situation began, the management of Primary Care in Lanzarote has reorganized its healthcare personnel and significantly reduced the activity of health centers and local clinics. To this end, several work teams have been created to respond to healthcare demands and provide daily follow-up to the 1,250 patients registered in the last month.
On the one hand, the so-called Covid team has been created, which exclusively attends to the 44 people who have tested positive for coronavirus and who remain in home isolation. This group, made up of two doctors and four nurses, is responsible for carrying out the tests and attending to patients through two daily phone calls until they are discharged.
In addition to positive patients, telephone follow-up is also being carried out on their close contacts: around 75 people, for at least 14 days, until it is ruled out that they have been infected. This task is carried out by part of the team of liaison nurses, while the rest of the team continues to work with the most fragile and complex patients, with an average of 60 calls per day since this crisis began, 440 since April 1st,
On the other hand, the health center teams attend to most of the healthcare demand, both by telephone and in person, although this type of consultation has been reduced to the bare minimum. In fact, the Primary Care Directorate points out that more than 80 percent of care is provided remotely and only 15 percent is done in person.
In addition to these cases, there is the home care that continues to be given to chronic patients and those in need of cures and other treatments. To reinforce these home visits, the Lanzarote Health Services Management has rented a total of 10 vehicles that have been made available to the health teams of the health centers and local clinics.
