Home care for mild cases and WHO guidance

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bob sterman
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Home care for mild cases and WHO guidance

Post by bob sterman » Sat Nov 21, 2020 10:04 pm

Just been having a look at the WHO guidance on Home care for patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 and management of their contacts

https://www.who.int/publications/i/item ... f-contacts
Home care may be considered for an adult or child with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 when inpatient care is unavailable or unsafe (e.g. when capacity is insufficient to meet the demand for health-care services).
The decision as to whether to isolate and care for an infected person at home depends on the following three factors: 1) clinical evaluation of the COVID-19 patient, 2) evaluation of the home setting and 3) the ability to monitor the clinical evolution of a person with COVID-19 at home.
The decision to isolate and monitor a COVID-19 patient at home should be made on a case-by-case basis.
Patients who are asymptomatic or those with mild or moderate disease without risk factors for poor outcome may not require emergency interventions or hospitalization, and could be suitable for home isolation and care, provided the following two requirements are fulfilled in the home setting: 1) conditions for implementing appropriate IPC as outlined in this document are met; 2) close monitoring for any signs or symptoms of deterioration in their health status by a trained health worker is feasible
Struggling to see how the UK approach fits with this - unless I suppose the ability to call 111 counts as "close monitoring" by a trained health worker.

Except perhaps during a couple of weeks of the first peak - could it really be said that capacity was insufficient to care for mild cases which have lower staffing requirements? The WHO guidance would seem to point to filling the Nightingales with mild/moderate cases.

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