Ottawa family physicians promoting new online tool for anyone confused about COVID
Posted Jan 20, 2022 08:04:00 PM.
With continuous changes being made to Ontario's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many people are struggling with information overload.
To help keep up with all of the information being released by different levels of government, a new digital resource has been created by the Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto and Ontario College of Family Physicians. The website, 'Confused about COVID,' aims to support doctor-patient communication and help the public make sense of the latest guidance around COVID-19 and the Omicron variant.
Dr. Liz Muggah, family doctor at Bruyère Family Medicine Centre, and President of the Ontario College of Family Physicians, tells CityNews' The Sam Laprade Show, family doctors recognised the need for this website.
“With the guidance on Omicron changing with who could get tested and who should isolate, we just needed to cut through some of that for our patients and come up with a simple tool,” Dr. Muggah says. “A one-stop, go-to place created by family doctors for patients.”
Residents can go to the site for answers to simple questions including:
- I'm not feeling well, what do I do?
- How do I know if I have COVID?
- When should I call my doctor?
- I've been exposed to someone with COVID, what should I do?
''With so many more people getting COVID, we really wanted to be sure that patients knew what to do,” Dr. Muggah says. “When are you supposed to call your doctor? And when is it okay to manage it at home? We really wanted to be sure that people knew when to reach out to us.”
The website is continuously updated daily with new guidance from the government to ensure that Ontarians are able to access the most up to date information.
Listen to Dr. Muggah's full conversation with Sam Laprade:
More local information regarding COVID-19 can be found at OttawaPublicHealth.ca.
