My blog

He only appeared in our village this week. No one wanted him here, so we didn't welcome him with bread and salt. However, since he has arrived, I thought that his visit could have an unexpectedly positive effect on us, because as soon as we recover, we can finally start meeting like in the good old, pre-COVID times.

My friend and next-door neighbor noticed the first symptoms on Monday: his children had a headache, his wife had trouble tasting food, and he had a runny nose and tiredness. He signed up for a private antigen test at the Damian Center on Tuesday morning. For PLN 150, they take a swab from your nose and throat, and you get the result after 15 minutes. In the case of the neighbor, it was positive. The doctor immediately ordered isolation for the entire family, notified the Sanitary Inspectorate, but completely ignored the information provided by the neighbor that he did not live at his registered place of residence. The procedure does not provide for such a situation. The next day, the Sanitary Inspectorate checked by phone whether the family was following the isolation rules and informed them that the neighbor could not leave the house until March 11, i.e. for 9 days from the date of the positive test, and his wife until March 17, i.e. 15 days from the date of her husband's positive test. If the neighbor's wife had taken the test, and not the neighbor, she could have left the house earlier than he did, so I don't really understand the logic behind it.

Since my neighbor had imposed the strictest restrictions in the entire village in his home during the pandemic, we began to wonder how it was possible that he was one of the first to catch the virus. A quick investigation showed that there were only two possible sources of COVID: his wife's manicure or my son's visit, which took place a few days before the ill-fated test.

When I compared the results of the investigation with the runny nose that appeared in me on Wednesday and with the information from my son that he was strangely tired after returning from work, I had no doubts - I had to check whether it was not necessary to order isolation in our home as well.

So I decided to go to the doctor and get a referral for a test.

I am the type of patient who knows better than a doctor what diagnostic measures should be taken in any disease, and from experience I know that if you want to leave the office with a referral for the tests you are interested in, you have to guide the conversation with the doctor appropriately, and sometimes slightly embellish your symptoms. In the case of a referral for a Covid test, the challenge is more serious. If you say you have a runny nose, the doctor will consider you healthy, and if you say you have lost your sense of smell, your bones hurt and you have had contact with a sick person, he will determine Covid. In both cases, there will be no need for a test. So I decided to say that I had contact with a neighbor the day before he was diagnosed with Covid, and I feel fine, although I have a slight runny nose and bone pain, but I would like to take a test because I do not know if I am contagious.

I had my first free appointment at Luxmed in Piaseczno on Thursday morning. A remote visit. I thought that in the last year, this was one of the last things in life that I had not dealt with remotely.

A friendly doctor called me promptly at seven o'clock and immediately after listening to my story, she informed me that she would be happy to refer me for a test, but she did not have the authority to do so, because the visit, or rather the phone call, was part of private care. And it does not matter that the same doctor, at different hours, working in the same facility, but as part of a visit under the auspices of the National Health Fund, issues referrals for tests. I asked the doctor whether, in her opinion, the strategy for combating the pandemic that our country has adopted makes sense - he replied that it does not.

The doctor advised me to call Luxmed, on the same phone number, and make an appointment with the National Health Fund. I did so immediately and, surprisingly, I managed to make an appointment remotely for nine thirty. I received an email confirming the appointment – identical to the one for that morning visit, which stated that the doctor would call me within a range of plus or minus thirty minutes from the scheduled time. So I made myself a second cup of coffee and from nine I stared at my smartphone screen waiting for a call from a doctor from the National Health Fund domain.

By ten o'clock no one called.

So I'm giving up on the National Health Fund. I call Luxmed to arrange a private test. While I'm waiting for the call, at exactly 10:06, I see on my smartphone that Luxmed is calling me - the same phone number, which means that it's my would-be visit from the National Health Fund. I try to transfer the call, but I can't. Both calls are disconnected.

I think to myself that if they tried to call and saw that the line was busy, they will call again. So I put the phone down and wait. After fifteen minutes, the phone rings. An equally nice doctor listens to my story, but quickly interrupts me and says that she would give me a referral, but she can't do it because the system is not working and she has a few more people in the queue whom she also cannot serve. I ask what I should do then. She tells me that she is on shift until 1 p.m. and will try. If she manages to give me a referral, she will call me, and if not, she suggests that I make an appointment with another doctor after 1 p.m. and keep trying. Pissed off, I start to vent my anger at the doctor. I say that it is all pointless, that by acting like this, we will not stop this pandemic. She tells me that only vaccines will stop it and that she can issue me a sick leave. I told her that I don't need a sick note if I don't know if I'm sick, I feel fine and I'm only concerned about not infecting others, but only if I'm certain that I'm sick, not if there's a suspicion. We don't reach an agreement, the doctor ends the conversation by saying that if all her patients complained about our healthcare system, she wouldn't be able to work at all.

Well, now I know that I have a private test left. I call Luxmed again. I ask about the tests they offer. The kind lady on the hotline tells me that they have two types of covid tests. The first, less accurate, antigen, for PLN 150 and the second, accurate, gene, for less than five hundred zlotys. If I want to go abroad, only the second is accepted. I have a ten percent discount on both as a Luxmed client. So I say that I would like to sign up today. However, the lady says that their facility does not perform tests on Thursdays and can sign me up for Friday. I tell her that I am sick today and I do not want to wait until tomorrow. The conversation ends.

I'm giving up. I don't feel like looking for a test in Warsaw. I'll self-isolate. I'm finally healthy and nothing ails me.

At noon, a doctor from Luxmed calls me – the one from the National Health Fund – and says that the system has started working. She gives me a seven-digit referral number from the central database. I ask where I can have the test done. The doctor informs me that there are two places in Piaseczno: Chyliczkowska at the starosty and Mickiewicza at the Saint Anne Hospital. There is a third point in the district, but in Tarczyn. Delighted, I thank the doctor.

I check online what kind of facilities are doing these tests. It turns out they are mobile points. I don't have a car today, so I get on my bike. The closest point is in the parking lot by the park in Piaseczno. I'm four kilometers away. In the parking lot by the main park in Piaseczno, there is a soldier's tent - open on both sides, nothing is happening inside. There are nine cars waiting in line to get into the tent. I get in line in tenth place as the only cyclist. In the meantime, a few more cars are lining up behind me. Next to the tent is a shack - about three by six meters. It has an entrance door on the left and a window in front. However, the window is closed. You can see that the point is out of order. In front of the window, in a dense queue, there is a group of customers - probably drivers or passengers who want to get infected before taking the test. I stand there for fifteen minutes. The window is still closed, and the line of cars is getting longer. I approach the shack. People say that they should open it soon. I say I don't understand why it's closed, since the internet says they're open all day. They don't understand either. I go to the window. There's a sign saying that on Thursday from 8:00 to 13:00 they're serving the National Health Fund, from 13:00 to 14:00 commercial, and from 14:00 to 20:00 again the National Health Fund. It's 12:50, I have a referral from the National Health Fund, so I won't wait an hour. I go to the second point in Piaseczno at the Saint Anne's Hospital. It's also open from morning to night, but when I pull up to the barracks, I read on it that they're accepting patients from 15:00. I go home.

I eat dinner and since I still don't have a car I get on my bike. It's 3:00 PM. First to the point at the starosty. There's a line of 30 cars. I won't stand in the cold. I'm going to Święta Anna. There's an even longer line there. I'm going back home.

Finally I have a car. I drive to the point by the starosty. I join the queue at 5:07 p.m. There are about forty cars in the queue. Equipped with a Kindle, a smartphone, in a warm car I don't care. At 6:50 p.m. it's my turn. I'm right by the tent and I get out of the car when the previous person is being served at the window. A woman is standing next to me. I ask if she's waiting to get her money. She says yes. I tell her to get in before me. She says she came on foot and has her own queue between the cars, but the lady serving told her to wait her turn. In the meantime, another woman with a four-year-old child drives up in her car and asks the lady serving if she can get in without queuing, but she is adamant - she tells her to get in at the end of the queue, informing her that she probably won't make it anyway because we close at 8 p.m.

I finally get served before 7 p.m. In the barracks I see two ladies working the bookkeeping. The third one takes my referral number, reads it out loud, then the other ladies check the computer to see if my order is in the system. I give my details and a moment later the main attendant takes a swab from my nostrils and mouth. I get a card with my login details. I can check the result in 24 hours, if they don't call me earlier with information about compulsory isolation.

I received the result on Friday at 10pm. Negative.

The World Health Organization has been trumpeting since the beginning of the pandemic that the only way to defeat the pandemic is testing. I am convinced that if tests were conducted preventively, were easily accessible, and free of charge, we would have defeated the pandemic long ago. However, I realize that this cannot be done because it is too expensive and unrealistic to implement. In fact, no country in Europe or in the world has managed to do this. However, reactive tests are a different matter. These, for people with even minor symptoms or people who have had contact with an infected person, should be carried out immediately and free of charge. Unfortunately, our country is unable to organize this.