Hobart GP Jennifer Misson urges the community to stay informed amid the coronavirus crisis

A Hobart GP is urging those with chronic illnesses to prepare to avoid general practice clinics if possible amid coronavirus fears.

Doctor Jennifer Misson who is a general practitioner in Hobart in relation to Coronavirus. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

A SANDY Bay doctor is urging people to stay informed amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr Jennifer Misson of the Sandy Bay Clinic and AMA spokesperson said she wasn’t yet practising during Australia’s last major pandemic.

“We would have seen H1N1 in the 2009, but that’s when I was a medical student,” she said.

“This is a first for me.”

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She said an interesting part of being a GP was staying up-to-date on all changes.

“If there’s a new kind of illness within the community, or there’s a change in guidelines, a GP will just need to be across it,” she said.

“We’re used to the landscape changing, but we’re seeing this landscape changing really rapidly.”

Dr Misson said while there was no need to panic, there was a need to stay informed.

“We need to tackle this as a community,” she said.

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“We can’t be too panicked and reactive to single cases, we have to look at all the information put together by the experts.

“I think everyone needs to remain engaged in the whole conversation about coronavirus.”

In terms of what the community should do if they believe they’ve contracted the virus, Dr Misson encouraged people not to just show up to see their GP.

“If you come into our practice and you have coronavirus you’ll shut down our business, which is a problem for the other thousands of patients using the general practice service,” she said.

“The take home message is that we really want to avoid having coronavirus in our clinics as much as possible.

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“There is a clinic available to you – the respiratory assessment clinic here at the Repatriation Hospital. If you are concerned about your travel or contact history, you can phone your GP for advice or phone the hotline, or you can self-refer yourself to the respiratory assessment centre.”

Dr Misson said there was also an option for some patients to access telehealth services instead of stepping foot inside a GP clinic.

“Personally, I think my message to our patients who do have chronic disease – if you have a regular GP, get your care plan updated. You should make contact and make sure you have enough prescriptions for six months so you can hopefully stay out of general practices,” she said.

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Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Dr Harry Nespolon said there was no cause for panic or alarm around the virus, but it needed to be taken seriously.

“GPs are on the frontline in efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19,” he said.

“Whenever a public health crisis like this emerges we are always here to help and we will continue to do all we can to help our patients.”