Dear Diaverum patient,
Since January, the Diaverum medical and nursing teams have been working daily to create protocols on how to modify routines and monitor dialysis patients during the COVID-19 outbreak. As a result, we have established stringent protocols to minimize the risk of contagion, allow for quick diagnosis and manage the correct referral of cases. These protocols are regularly updated and aim to ensure that everything is done according to the most rigorous scientific and epidemiological criteria to minimize the spread of this disease.
By now, your team should have provided you with all the information you need to continue your treatments safely. Naturally, there is a need to make changes to the daily routines at your clinic; this is done to ensure the safety and continuity of operations in a particularly difficult time.
Going forward, you may experience changes impacting your treatment schedule, your treatment prescription and your presence at the clinic. You may also need to answer questions regarding symptoms before entering the treatment room. All these actions are thoughtfully designed to keep you as safe as possible. If you have questions or doubts, which is perfectly natural, please contact the health professionals who treat you daily.
"We are taking all precautions to keep you safe"
You might face a situation where your dialysis companions or family members are going to contract the disease. In such a case, keep calm and inform your local clinic team, we will provide you with all the required support.
It should also be added that our medical professionals face the risk of contracting the disease and, for this reason, there may be changes in the number of professionals present at the clinic and in the clinic's routines.
While we are taking all available measures to prevent disease transmission, we cannot exclude the possibility that some of our patients will contract the disease. We have therefore introduced new triage procedures to identify patients with symptoms before entering the clinic, and we have developed joint contingency plans with the different national authorities to provide dialysis to these patients during their treatment.
Most cases of contraction are due to social interaction, so behaviours must be radically changed to minimize risk. In addition to the information that your teams give you, let me reinforce some recommendations of utmost importance at this point:
- Try not to leave home, except for your dialysis treatment.
- Avoid social contact and keep a safe distance from other people.
- If you know that someone you have contacted has contracted the disease, immediately inform the clinical team by phone before going to the clinic.
- Wear protective equipment if asked by the health professionals who treat you.
- If you have any symptom like fever, tiredness, dry cough, aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat or diarrhoea, contact the clinic or health authorities.
- Respect all recommendations and procedures advised by the health professionals of your clinic.
- Contact your clinic to clarify your doubts.
Our professionals are well prepared to guide you and keep you safe, but your cooperation is indispensable.
We are all together in this battle to fight this new disease. Together we will win!
Fernando Macário, Chief Medical Officer Diaverum
M.D. Nephrology