Health chief says patients must not struggle to reach care

Patients should not feel unheard or unable to contact health workers when seeking help, the head of the Capital Region Primary Health Care Service says, according to mbl.is.

Sigríður Dóra Magnúsdóttir said work was under way to improve telephone response and make services more consistent across the region’s health centres. Doctors should also follow up on tests and examinations when results do not explain a patient’s symptoms, she said. A persistent shortage of doctors must not be used as an excuse for failing to provide necessary care.

“You should never feel that the only way in is to book an appointment with a doctor, which may involve a wait,” Sigríður Dóra told mbl.is. “That is not an acceptable service at all.” She said patients should be able to speak with a nurse or be offered another option when a doctor’s appointment is not available.

Her comments followed an interview published in Morgunblaðið the previous day with Björn Árni Ágústsson, who said he was diagnosed with a brain tumour after repeatedly seeking help from a health centre for symptoms that remained unexplained. He said he was unable to reach a doctor about further tests. The tumour was eventually found after he went to the private company Intuens for an extensive health check.

Sigríður Dóra said she did not know the details of Björn Árni’s case, which health centre he had contacted or what was recorded in his medical file. She therefore could not assess whether mistakes had been made. She said the case should be referred to the Directorate of Health, which has the authority to investigate it.

She also questioned whether private health checks involving detailed MRI scans, such as those offered by Intuens, help ease pressure on the healthcare system. In her view, such checks and their results may instead cause health anxiety, although they can sometimes uncover a genuine health problem.