A Gqeberha ambulance service is offering at-home health check-ups for anyone too afraid to visit the hospital for fear of contracting Covid-19.
BesMed is offering patient assessments on your doorstep, to either put your mind at ease about your health or recommend that a trip to the hospital might be worth the risk.
“These are tough times, everyone is struggling, and this is just our small way of trying to make a difference,” BesMed owner Wesley Bester said.
The patient assessment costs R300, and a paramedic will come to your house to check your blood pressure, blood-sugar levels, oxygen saturation and heart rate.
“We also check for any small wounds, signs of dehydration and do a basic head-to-toe assessment.
“Depending on what we pick up, we can then suggest to the patients whether it would be worth going to a hospital or to contact their GP.
“In some cases the patients are completely fine and we can just put their minds at ease that everything is still OK.”
Gqeberha residents concerned that they might have contracted Covid-19 can also make use of mobile testing services, like NURSE 2 U.
While they do not offer general medical assessments, they offer rapid testing to confirm whether a patient has contracted the virus and they can then seek further medical attention.
Bester, 34, who has worked in emergency services for more than a decade, said he had identified the need for this service shortly after Covid-19 cases started escalating in the city.
“People were right to be concerned about Covid, but it was like they forgot about every other illness out there.
“We’ve seen numerous people suffering from diabetes or hypertension, but refusing to seek help because they are afraid.
“The longer Covid stuck around, the more we saw the need for this service. Unfortunately, we cannot provide this service free, but we really tried to make it as affordable as possible,” Bester said.
“We can’t force people to seek medical attention. We can only provide them with as much information as we can so that they can make an informed decision.”
HeraldLIVE
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