Health centers have always offered home visits to patients enrolled in home health care, ie those who have an ongoing illness that makes it difficult to get to the health care center.

Now, Region Sörmland has decided that the health centers should also be able to make home visits to patients belonging to risk groups for the new corona virus. It is about the elderly and people with underlying illnesses and who cannot get to the health center. The aim is that these patients should not be exposed to the risk of being infected by covid-19 in connection with a visit to a health center.

- But you can't just call the health center and demand a home visit. First, a medical assessment is made over the phone, where it is decided whether or not to have a home visit, says Mats Henningsson, health director.

Applies to all health centers

The decision to extend the home visits to the risk groups applies to all 30 health centers in Sörmland. The municipality of Eskilstuna has also chosen to strengthen with two nurses.

- We normally work at asylum and migrant health with health surveys on asylum seekers and new arrivals. Now the health centers in Eskilstuna that will not be able to get home visits will get help from us, says the nurse Vida Anne Torelöv.

The reinforcement in Eskilstuna will be tested during April and May.