Kamloops physician encourages use of virtual doctors appointments

Patients will either speak to a doctor over the phone or by video conference call.

“Should you require a one-on-one assessment, this can still be set up through your family physician’s office or nurse practitioner’s office, just taking precautions to keep yourself as well as your family physician and office staff safe,” Swart said.

For those people without a doctor or nurse practitioner, help is still available.

“Some of the walk-in clinics do a similar thing,” Swart said. “They also have virtual care available to the patients. Patients can still call the 8-1-1 number and be directed to places of care and there’s also the self-assessment tool on the government of B.C.’s website.”

However, Swart says online and over-the-phone appointments are not without their challenges.

“A lot of family practice revolves around how you read your patient’s body language,” he said. “So, obviously some of that gets lost when we talk over the telephone. But again, fortunately we know most of our patients for a long period of time and you can probably pick up on some of the voice changes and things like that.”

Dr. Swart says he feel confident in the steps being taken by the Ministry of Health and Interior Health to protect the community.

“There has been such an outpour from our community for healthcare workers and frontline workers,” Swart said. “I feel really blessed to be part of this community, I think we as Kamloops are doing very well. I know nobody has the local numbers to know how many people are in our local area that have the virus. There are approximately 130 patients in the Interior, so that means our local community is being affected.”

Swart adds now is not the time for people to let their guards down.

“We’re doing our utmost, should there be a second wave or an increase in cases to control these cases or manage them in an adequate way.”

by Jill Sperling

Kamloops physician encourages use of virtual doctors appointments

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