- Title: Berlin doctor offers coronavirus tests to support public health system
- Date: 24th March 2020
- Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (MARCH 23, 2020) (REUTERS) DOCTOR'S ASSISTANT WEARING YELLOW PROTECTIVE SUIT AND STANDING IN PARKING LOT NEXT TO MAKESHIFT TENT TELLING PATIENT HOW TO INSERT COTTON SWAB INTO HIS MOUTH TO TEST FOR CORONAVIRUS PATIENT INSERTING COTTON SWAB WOMAN IN PROTECTIVE SUIT DISINFECTING HER GLOVES ANOTHER PATIENT CONDUCTING TEST WOMAN IN PROTECTIVE SUIT CLOSING PLASTIC CONTAINERS GENERAL PRACTITIONER ULRIKE LIPKE, WEARING PROTECTIVE SUIT, ARRIVING WITH PLASTIC BAG AND SPEAKING TO ASSISTANT (SOUNDBITE) (German) GENERAL PRACTITIONER, ULRIKE LIPKE, SAYING: "What we can do as general practitioners is to listen to people and to calm them down. We explain and deal with people's uncertainties, including their everyday problems, worries about chronic illnesses in connection with the coronavirus. By doing so we are taking away some of the burden from emergency ambulances and that's our job." LIPKE'S ASSISTANTS WEARING PROTECTIVE SUITS WORKING WITH PATIENT IN TENT (SOUNDBITE) (German) GENERAL PRACTITIONER, ULRIKE LIPKE, SAYING: "I am absolutely convinced that 168,000 general practitioners in Germany are an important pillar so that university and other hospitals don't collapse." BLOOD SAMPLE LYING ON TABLE ASSISTANTS WITH PLASTIC BAG INSIDE TENT (SOUNDBITE) (German) GENERAL PRACTITIONER, ULRIKE LIPKE, SAYING: "Stick exactly to the rules which were issued. The government just about managed to find a way out ahead of a lockdown. I believe we are in a remarkably good position and I am most thankful for our excellent health system. That's expensive and at the latest now people know why." MEDICAL SUPPLIES ON TABLE ASSISTANTS WORKING INSIDE TENT
- Embargoed: 7th April 2020 10:21
- Keywords: berlin coronavirus general practioner test
- Location: BERLIN, GERMANY
- City: BERLIN, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA001C6EUD6V
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany rose by 4,764 within a day to reach to 27,436 on Tuesday (March 24), a general practitioner in Berlin decided to take things into her own hands to remove some of the burden from emergency ambulances and hospitals.
Ulrike Lipke got in contact with local health authorities and made them an offer: protective suits for coronavirus tests.
People who want to be tested for the virus and want to avoid the rush on public test centres can now show up at Lipke's makeshift tent on the parking lot outside her practice from 5:30 to 7:30 a.m.
Here, she and her team, dressed in yellow protective suits and wearing safety goggles and rubber gloves show patients how to take the test with a cotton swab which will then be analysed at a lab.
Lipke sees her service as part of an effort to avoid the collapse of Germany's hospitals.
Even though she praises the country's "excellent health system," experts agree that no one knows what is yet to come in this crisis which has gripped the world.
(Production: Leon Malherbe, Michele Sani) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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