Post COVID-19-19 health examination needs increase

Recently, medical facilities in the province have received a large number of patients coming for post-COVID-19 examination. Not all F0 who have recovered from the disease coming to the post-COVID-19 examination have to be tested and scanned, but based on current clinical symptoms. People who have recovered from COVID-19 disease belonging to 3 risk groups that need to be examined after COVID-19.

Increasing demand for post-COVID-19 examination

Currently, people's demand for post-COVID-19 consultation, examination and treatment is increasing as many people believe that everyone with infection needs to have a post-COVID-19 health check. In fact, not all F0 need to be checked for sequelae after treatment, which will be wasteful and create economic burden.

A doctor of Hoan My Hospital 1 is guiding a patient to practice breathing and movements

Understanding the medical examination and treatment needs of people after being infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, many hospitals in the area have established post-COVID-19 treatment clinics and departments to help early assess sequelae and to minimize the risk potential harm to the health and quality of life of the patients. Hoan My Van Phuc Hospital 1 is one of the pioneering private hospitals in the active treatment of post-COVID-19 patients with a team of doctors of many years of experience in examining and treating cardiovascular, nervous and endocrine diseases. Each patient will be examined with specialist doctors and consulted to be given a separate treatment regimen suitable to their physical condition and general test results with economical cost, right person, and right disease.

As reported, some hospitals have also implemented post-COVID-19 examination packages with both services and health insurance. Through consulting the staff of Saigon General Hospital, it is known that patients can come to the post-COVID-19 examination with health insurance or choose different costing packages; each of which will have different indications including a general examination. As for patients using health insurance, the examination fee will depend on the doctor's prescription after the examination. Or at Becamex International Hospital every day, about 70 respiratory patients come to outpatient care, of which post-COVID-19 patients account for about 40-50%. Patients who come to the clinic after COVID-19 can choose to have a regular check-up at an outpatient clinic like all other respiratory patients, or choose to visit a respiratory clinic on request. All tests and technical services for post-COVID-19 examination are developed according to the regulations of the Ministry of Health.

According to statistics from hospitals, every day, hospitals receive about 80 to 100 patients for post-COVID-19 examination; most of the patients who come for post-Covid-19 examination are elderlies having many underlying diseases. Only a a few are patients are children. Patients come to the clinic mainly because of respiratory and psychological symptoms such as anxiety, insomnia, fatigue, etc. The health sector recommends that people with post-COVID-19 symptoms should seek medical care at trusted facilities.

Not all infection leads to post-COVID-19

Specialist Medicine Doctor Tran Thi Minh Nguyet, Head of Pediatrics Department under Binh Duong provincial General Hospital said: “Recently, many parents have taken their children to be examined after COVID-19 but the doctor indicates that there is no need to scan or take blood for testing because they only had very mild infection with COVID-19 in a short duration of infection. Clinical examination showed no signs of shortness of breath or cough while their active energy was still very good. After weighing the benefits and risks, the doctors at the department considered and gave an indication that there was no need to take blood for tests or scans, but advised parents to monitor, if the children had symptoms, they would be re-examined and tested.”

According to medical experts, not all F0 suffer from post-COVID-19 sequelae, so people should not panic and worry. Not every F0 recovering from COVID-19 will develop post-COVID-19. In cases of post-COVID-19 examination, doctors will look for the patient's current clinical symptoms, age, underlying medical conditions, and previous positive treatment progress to prescribe tests and scans. Associate Professor, Doctor Nguyen Lan Hieu, Director of the Hanoi Medical University Hospital and Director of Binh Duong provincial General Hospital said: “Currently many people are experiencing post-COVID-19 syndrome, but that does not mean all sick people must go to the doctor after COVID-19. Those who have symptoms of post-COVID-19 need to go to the doctor would include F0 who are hospitalized, have pneumonia, are treated in the ICU, and after being discharged from the hospital, the doctor schedule a follow-up visit every 4 weeks or 8 weeks. As for the mild F0 group, who did not need to be hospitalized, they only go for follow-up visits when they have post-COVID-19 symptoms. 3 groups of F0 need post-COVID-19 examining include group of people with underlying diseases (such as hypertension, coronary artery disease, diabetes, metabolic disorders...); the group of people of 60 years of age and older are at risk for many co-morbidities that have not yet started, but after contracting COVID-19 it can promote the condition to the worse; the group of people who are hospitalized with COVID-19 having respiratory failure, require oxygen or higher intervention, and having high fever are hospitalized.

Reported by Kim Ha – Translated by Vi Bao

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