Amsterdam GPs to help hospitals with Covid care
General practitioners in Amsterdam are teaming up with local hospitals to help provide care for Covid-19 cases. They, along with care organizations in the capital, expect to be able to discharge 50 hospitalized patients earlier per week if GPs care further for them at home, internist-infectiologist Marc van der Valk of Amsterdam UMC said to AD.
"We often see that people who are over the hill and recovering still need some oxygen for quite some time, while they are otherwise stable," Van der Valk said to the newspaper. "If they can care for themselves with informal care or minimal home care, they can go home earlier with oxygen."
According to Van der Valk, this could reduce the average hospital stay for a Covid-19 patient from 7 or 8 days to 5 or 6 days. "That has a major impact," he said. "IT allows us to take in new patients earlier and to keep regular care up to standard."
Van der Valk added that sending a patient home early will only be done with the consent of their GP. "If he has a major outbreak in his neighborhood, we keep the patient here or we look for another solution. The GP must be able to provide the care."
