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Now, the use of rapid tests also receives the green light from the Swedish Public Health Agency. Skåne is the first in the country: the 200,000 rapid tests that have been purchased will be used by Monday at eight different health centers.
Regional director Alf Jönsson showed two weeks ago the quick test that the Skåne Region bought for SEK 9 million, in a first round.
– We will certainly buy more rapid tests, even if the ones we have already received are a good deal, says regional councilor Gilbert Tribo (L).
– If we can loosen the laboratory’s capacity to make it better enough for self-assessments, then everything we can is worth doing. It has hit the ceiling everywhere.
In the first round rapid tests will be sent to eight health centers and two mobile teams. The healthcare centers are: Landborgen in Helsingborg, Staffanstorp healthcare center, Sjöcrona in Höganäs, Östermalm in Kristianstad, Värnhem in Hässleholm, Getingen in Lund and both Södervärn and Kryddgården in Malmö. In addition, mobile care team in Malmö and Skåne Central, as well as palliative care in Malmö.
However, the tests are only for selected patients, not for the general public.
The idea is that the rapid test can also be used in Skåne’s emergency departments, but adaptation of the medical record system in hospitals has slowed it down.
Gilbert Tribo welcomes the approval of rapid tests in health care by the Swedish Public Health Agency (FHM), but would have liked to point out a wider area of use. The guide that is being issued now only talks about the rapid sampling of patients in health centers, before planned operations and in emergency rooms.
– But what I would like from the government or the Public Health Agency is information that we would quickly evaluate all our employees in healthcare, to reduce infection there, says Gilbert Tribo.
Rapid tests must be performed by healthcare professionals, in part because it is an extra long rod that must be inserted into the throat and nose. However, they do not require a lab test, but give results in the same way as a pregnancy test.
Since rapid tests are less sensitive than regular virus tests, they can be used primarily to distinguish infectious people with elevated virus levels. In a nursing home, in an ambulance, or in the emergency department, they can provide quick information on which patients need to be isolated.
