Covid parallel shift (extra shift)
Outside normal working hours of the GP’s, a person may also have severe symptoms of Covid-19 and/or a Covid-19 patient may need urgent care.
As the first contact person for the patients, the GP’s in Aruba have expanded their services since September 2020 to help guide Covid-19 patients as good as possible in the pandemic.
This service is offered on weekdays between 7:00 pm and 7:00 am and throughout the day on weekends.
Patients can call number 166, if they have a positive Covid test and/or if there is an urgent situation where the patient shows severe symptoms of Covid-19.
What happens next?
The GP on duty evaluates the patient’s situation and in most cases this is done using the information from the oxygen meter that Covid-19 patients receive from the GP.
The GP on duty also decides whether a home visit is necessary to be able to personally assess the patient or that the patient can wait until the next day for a visit from his own GP. A possible scenario is also that the patient needs to be admitted to the hospital.
In the event of a house visit, the GP will receive help from the Red Cross, which will help the GP to put on personal protective equipment (PPE) to prevent Covid-19 infection.
Statistics Covid parallel shift
The following graph shows the number of times the GP had been called (teleconsultations), the number of patients visited by the GP (visits) and the number of times the GP had to have a patient admitted (patients submitted). The graph, in which the Covid “waves” are clearly registrered, is a representation of the period September 2020 – October 2021.
