From next week we no longer have access to CBACs for assessment of respiratory infections outside of General Practice. With the current case definition all people with symptoms of sore throat, cough, runny nose, shortness of breath or loss of smell still need to have a COVID swab done and this now needs to be done through your GP.

While we are now able to book more appointments to see patients in the surgery we still need to keep people with respiratory symptoms away from others to minimise the risk of spread. This means initial contact will need to still be by phone.

If you have symptoms please phone in by 10am and you will be placed on a triage list to be contacted by a doctor or nurse. Arrangements will then be made for you to have a swab done either at the laboratory or the surgery. This is by appointment only at an afternoon clinic and not necessarily on the same day. There is no self-referral option as there was with CBACs.

To enable safe swabbing of those patients that have to be seen by a GP we have hired a portable cabin so that infectious patients are seen without entering the main surgery building. This has been equipped so that we can provide assessments and swabbing in a safe environment with appropriate PPE.

New Zealand’s swift response to COVID-19 has achieved an enviable result. Today we again have had no new cases reported and only a single active case still in the country. A benefit of the lockdown has been a much lower incidence of winter cold and ‘flu infections as shown in the graph above. Now that social contact is increasing we can expect these infections to start rising and as a result an increasing demand for swabs. This is a real pinch point for us in General Practice as we are already stretched catching up with all the issues put on hold during the lockdown and now have to take on the role provided to date by CBACs which may escalate. Please be patient and understanding if we cannot see you as promptly as you may like with non-urgent issues.

With ongoing swabbing of symptomatic people, if swab results remain negative we should see a change in the case definition and a reduction in swabbing. If swabbing starts to reveal a resurgence of COVID-19 the CBACs with need to reopen. Maintaining social distancing, strict hand hygiene, cough etiquette and staying home when sick we will minimise the risk of all virus spread and increase the chances of the best outcome.