Doctors turned away patients who may have coronavirus, SLO County health official says
Physicians in San Luis Obispo County apparently turned away patients showing signs of coronavirus — prompting the local public health officer to tell care providers to “step it up.”
Dr. Penny Borenstein, who is leading the county’s response to COVID-19, made the announcement at a county Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday morning during public discussion about actions to mitigate spread of the disease.
One message that’s been difficult to get out, Borenstein said, “is that our physicians cannot wash their hands of their obligation to take care of their patients.”
Six cases of coronavirus were confirmed in San Luis Obispo County on Tuesday, the same day that the county Public Health Department announced people should seek testing through their primary care provider and private labs because public testing supplies are running low.
However, providers’ offices in the recent past have told people “we are not taking care of patients who may have this disease,” according to Borenstein.
“I find that to be unacceptable,” she said. “I ask our provider community in the outside world to step up and do all that is necessary to take care of their established patients.”
So far, she said, her staff have been the only ones in the county collecting specimens and their capacity is limited.
Some working in local medical offices are scared, she said, but they shouldn’t be because they know how to take protective measures when collecting specimens.
That wasn’t the case elsewhere in California earlier in March, when medical professionals who didn’t have the highest levels of protective equipment were forced to quarantine for 14 days.
That shouldn’t be a problem now, Borenstein said. And, the availability of a lab able to test for the virus should not be a problem, either, she said.
Public health officials are urging people to call their physicians if they feel sick. Then the medical professionals will determine if a test is needed.
Symptoms of COVID-19 include a fever, dry cough, shortness of breath, fatigue and body aches.
Visit ReadySLO.org for the latest public health updates and recommendations or call the Public Health information line at 805-788-2903.
This story was originally published March 18, 2020 at 5:05 AM.
