In order to prevent giving multiple treatments to patients with COVID-19 in doctor's offices at private pharmacies in Mexico City and so that medical staff is not at risk of infections, Mexico City’s government , the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) , the UNAM’s School of Medicine, and the “Salvador Zubirán” National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition , will begin training general practitioners in those spaces to standardize medical care for the new disease.
“From the learning derived from the pandemic , we seek to generate the same care , for there to be the same detection of the symptoms , the same kind of care, and, in case they have to go to the hospital, resort to triage as soon as possible so that they can be treated by a doctor at another level,” said Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum .
The general director of the “Salvador Zubirán” National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition, David Kershenobich Stalnikowitz , stressed that general health units have detected patients with multiple treatments , that is over, over 10 drugs prescribed by physicians at pharmacies, which can worsen the disease.
“Many of the patients arrived with different drugs and when they do, some can be counterproductive and contraindicated ; hence, this is a disease in which we have no certainty of the treatment; there’s not a specific one; however, we do know the measures that prevent the patient from getting worse,” he said.
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Therefore, first contact general practitioners at pharmacies will be trained because they are the ones who are closest to the population and they are the first place where patients go; they need to know how to recognize the symptoms and decide whether patients need to resort to triage or not.
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eanwhile, U NAM’s dean Enrique Graue Wiechers mentioned that training is necessary for doctors at these offices to be able to immediately identify the symptoms and channel patients with possible COVID-19 to the SEDESA’s Health Centers .
The head of the local Health Ministry, Oliva López Arellano , said that out of the entire population of Mexico City, 50% lack social security and from them, 30% uses medical offices at pharmacies, although it is not a service that replaces social security or SEDESA’s Health Centers.
“Nearly 30% of those who lack social security resort to this service ; it’s not a service that replaces the others, but it’s a first-contact service , so it is highly important for those doctors to be trained because people go there first, and then to the health center or their social security clinic,” she said.
The training will consist of four sessions , and the first will begin on Friday via online , according to the head of the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology, and Innovation (SECTEI), Rosaura Ruiz Gutiérrez, with 600 general practitioners from different companies, although the number could rise for there are over 11,000 pharmacies in Mexico City.
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Pharmacies with oximeters
Doctor’s offices at pharmacies could have oximeters to channel people with COVID-19, but it will not be a test performed to all patients; hence, Mexico City’s government called doctors working at pharmacies to be trained, said Oliva López Arellano.
“The objective is to train physicians and for them to have oximeters, but also to be able to identify the saturation of oxygen , the heart and breathing rates , and to able to identify silent hypoxia .”
Likewise, she stressed that, along with Mexico City’s government, they pretend to include kits with oximeters for people with comorbidities , in addition to instructions to do proper measures. Moreover, she asserted the government is purchasing more equipment for doctors at Health Centers so that they can have oximeters.
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