The National General Directorate of Hospitals issued a circular on Saturday informing primary care physicians that the National Ambulance Service will no longer perform coronavirus tests on the orders of primary care physicians as of Tuesday.
“The question arises as to who should carry out the tests in patients with walking disabilities or, for example, in social homes,” wrote health expert Zsombor Kunetz on his social media page, expressing serious doubts about the decision.
Although general practitioners have long argued that testing should be separated from normal patient care, the responsibility for testing will now shift to primary care physicians as well as the on-call medical staff.
István Cserni, a GP in Verőce, thinks it is absurd that COVID patients now have to wait alongside maternity patients, chemotherapy patients, and other patients who need long-term treatment.
Another major relaxation in epidemiologic regulations is that the elderly can return from the hospital to their nursing home as early as the seventh day after infection without being examined.