Currently, the Omicron strain affects young people more, but if it spreads among seniors, family doctors' practices would face an even bigger load.
The rapid increase in the number of new Covid-19 infections had a significant impact on the practices of family doctors. Veide said that “no doctor works 8 hours anymore” but that because of the large number of patients, working hours have increased. Every day one family doctor has an average of 9-10 new Covid-19 patients and needs to call 50-60 people infected with Covid-19 every day, Veide said.
At the same time, family doctors are concerned about the issue of substitution when the family doctor himself or someone else from the practice staff is infected with Covid-19. Veide said that the first cases had been observed when the practice had no employees left who could go to work. The situation is also slowed down by the fact that doctors themselves have to look for a replacement in such situations, Veide added.
