Employees are screened by private medical institutions – not all employers care about their staff

It is true that only legal persons will receive compensation, that is, companies, not the employees themselves.

The employee testing also involved private healthcare providers in the country, whose staff may come to the company and perform the tests on site, or who would hire employees to examine themselves.

As Vitalijus Orlovas, CEO of Affidea Lietuva, told Delfi, some companies evaluate their employees without expecting compensation for research or help from a specialist.

“Some large companies have bought the tests themselves and are trying to do the research for their own staff, or the staff is doing the research themselves. But I think that represents a threat to organizations. Will people really be able to insert their toes into the nasopharynx and rotate them properly? I don’t think it is very good for workers to do it themselves, because firstly the sample may not be taken correctly and secondly the worker may be injured. In other words, it must be done by professionals ”, V. Orlov did not hesitate.

Other organizations purchase testing services from medical companies.

“External service buyers are really unevenly distributed, because we provide services throughout Lithuania. Currently, employers in the Klaipeda region are leaders in terms of employee testing, noted V. Orlov, adding: Not all employers take care of their employees. I think this compensation program introduced by the government will encourage employers to pay more attention to the safety of their employees. “

The decision to partially compensate for employee testing was also welcomed by the president of the Lithuanian Association of Private Health Institutions, Laimutis Paškevičius.

“The World Health Organization, the European Commission and all the experts say that there are three ways to handle this pandemic: safety and hygiene issues in the form of quarantine or the use of protective equipment, and the second way is to test as many people as possible to analyze and isolate the infection, because it becomes infected after 12 to 15 cases, and the third activity is vaccination, which has already started ”, said L. Paškevičius.

The interviewee was pleased that all three recommendations were already being implemented.

As mentioned above, private healthcare institutions, whose representatives also reach out to employers, were happy to participate in employee testing, so that they did not have to go to the tests themselves.

“If it is necessary to send many employees of a company or commercial organization to a health care institution, the risk of infection increases,” thinks L. Paškevičius. – There were cases where the basketball team booked the entire hotel and in that case it would have been possible to test basketball players without inviting them to a medical institution, but then it was not possible to do so. And now the order has been confirmed, when it is already possible to do that.

To my knowledge, private bodies are already conducting tests at the employer’s premises. After that, at the end of the month, you will have to fill out certain documents to bring all the data to the SPB, as the requirements are serious enough. That is, employers, after talking to employees, those who agree to take the test should do so periodically. In this case, the scope of the tests will be expanded. “

The director of the Lithuanian Association of Private Health Institutions was still surprised that, at the moment, support for trial employees is distributed only to small and medium-sized companies, but not to large ones.

“If the tests were incentivized and compensated, what is the difference with who is compensated so that in a certain sense there is no discrimination.

Perhaps not all employers will be able to fund the tests, as the economy is in fact in a very severe recession due to the closure of services and outlets. Apparently everyone is suffering huge losses. It would be good to find another instrument that is financed with the budget, so that more support can be given to companies that are considered large, as well as small and medium-sized companies, “said the interlocutor.

Representatives of private medical institutions say they are fully prepared to evaluate employees.

“We are fully prepared for testing: we perform many rapid and PCR tests for COVID-19 every day in the clinic. We have implemented high standards of safety and quality of tests, we have specially trained and trained staff, a pre-registration line separate for patients to call for examinations. We integrate the answers from all investigations into the e-health system. And so far we have worked and are working with companies for which we provide employee evaluation services, so we do not see no obstacle to increasing the scope of the tests, even if teachers or company employees should be hired for the tests, ”said the director of the Baltic and American Surgery and Therapy Clinic promised Delfi Inga Grigiene.

Health professionals are willing to turn to employees to test companies. True, as noted by L. Paškevičius, it is important to discuss with them in advance the conditions for the installation of the test site, that is, the hygiene requirements defined in the orders of the National Center for Public Health and the Minister of Health.

An internet connection must also be provided so that healthcare professionals can enter data into SPBs on the spot. “It is good that the specialists themselves are responsible for this. It will not be up to the institutions themselves to decide how to meet those requirements, but the health care institutions that will undergo the tests will explain that the process will be very orderly, ”said L. Paškevičius.

V. Orlov added that some employees of the organizations may go to medical institutions for examination.

According to the government, small and medium-sized businesses, including the self-employed, will receive compensation for testing workers if their activities were restricted during the second quarantine. Those businesses that have not used 200,000 LTL in the last two years will be eligible for assistance. State aid cartels. Employee surveys must be conducted regularly, and compensation for them will be paid to companies on a regular basis based on the number of surveys conducted.

It will be possible to test about 100 thousand funds for state funds. employees and a person could be evaluated 12 times in three months.

Rapid tests allow cases to be traced quickly, shortening the isolation period for some employees or not isolating them at all. A rapid serological antibody test determines whether a person has a history of coronavirus and a rapid antigen test indicates whether a person currently has the disease. The antibody test will not be done more often than every 60 days and the antigen test no more than every 7 days and at least every 10 days.