The receptions at health care stations

1. Log on to the My Healthcare service. For identification, you need online bank user identifiers or a mobile certificate. Identification is done via the web service suomi.fi.
2. Click on “Messages” in the menu on the My Healthcare site if you wish to send a message. The first time you use the system, the system asks your permission for sending messages.
3. Click on “New message” and fill in the fields on the electronic form. If you wish to send your message to the nurse’s and doctor’s reception in Kokkola, choose it in the menu if you have not been assigned your own contact person. If you have been assigned a contact person, choose “Assigned contact person, nurses’ and doctors’ reception” as the recipient.
4. Write your message and send it by clicking on Send.

We offer our clients who use Marevan a possibility to use online services in DigiSoite’s My Healthcare service. A client and a nurse agree together on transitioning to online services if the client is suitable for the services.

Online services are suitable for non-urgent care to support a client’s self-care.

Benefits:

• it is possible for clients who use Marevan and are suitable for online services to check their own INR values and medicine doses, their lists of medicines and their vaccination information via the My Healthcare service 24/7.
• the client does not need to queue on the phone
• the client’s responsibility for his/her treatment increases
• it is easier for the client to take care of his/her health care errands

The digital My Healthcare services offers clients the possibility to be a part of the team that cares for him/her. The team includes a doctor, a nurse and the client. The doctor and the nurse use their expertise to support the citizen in taking care of his/her health and in having control over his/her illness.

After having been tested for the coronavirus, you can find your test result in the MyKanta services or you can contact your health care station and ask about the results.

• Stay at home until your symptoms have lessened significantly and you no longer have a fever. Your family can continue living a normal life.
• Being at home means restricting social contacts and travelling. It is recommended that contacts of over 15 minutes with other people are avoided.

A positive test result

If you have a coronavirus infection or if you suffer from symptoms connected to the coronavirus, it is important to avoid contacts until the symptoms have lessened.

If you get a positive result in a home test and have no underlying diseases, have mild respiratory symptoms and your general condition is good and you do not need a sick leave certificate for your employer, you do not usually need to contact the health care services or seek out coronavirus testing in the health care services. You can return to work when your symptoms have significantly lessened. This usually takes 3-5 days.

A negative result in a home test does not mean that the incubation period of the coronavirus is not going on and that a disease cannot be to detect later.

Your occupational health services or your health care centre can write a sick leave certificate based on a home test.

A positive result in a home test may be verified in the health care services if:

• you have severe symptoms
• you belong to an at-risk group
• you are pregnant
• you work in social or health care services

If you get infected with COVID-19, avoid close contact with other people. Stay at home until your symptoms have lessened significantly and you no longer have a fever.

When you become ill:

• Avoid close contact with others
• Stay at home until your symptoms have lessened significantly and you no longer have a fever.
• If you work in health care services or in the care for the elderly, you must follow the instructions you receive from your employer.
• When you are ill, it is important to rest and drink enough fluids (2.5 litres/day). Alcohol should be avoided.  You can relieve fever and pain with over-the-counter medications.
• Maintain good hand and coughing hygiene.
• Monitor your condition. If your health deteriorates, if necessary call:
  • Your health care station
  • Outside of phone hours, please contact us as follows:
    • Adults and other over 16-year-old persons who are ill: call Soite’s joint emergency services 116 117
    • Under 16-year-old persons who are ill: Soite’s paediatric emergency clinic, phone 06 826 4444. Open around the clock 24/7.

When caring for a child who is ill:

The instructions below apply always regardless of the pathogen or underlying disease.

If a child becomes ill and develops any of the following symptoms, seek out medical care as soon as possible: 

• difficulty breathing
• the skin is bluish or grey
• the child does not drink enough fluids
• the child vomits heavily or continuously
• the child does not wake up or react to anything
• the child is so irritable that they do not want to be in your arms
• the symptoms disappear but then return with a fever and a worse cough.

When can one return to work after the disease?

You may return to work when you no longer have a fever and your other symptoms are significantly milder. Changes in the sense of smell or taste or a mild dry cough can continue for a long time even if other symptoms have lessened. This usually takes 3-5 days.

Exposure situations in care facilities and nursing homes

In case of a coronavirus exposure, the head of the unit must give the personnel instructions on preventing an epidemic in the unit and must, if needed, contact an infectious diseases nurse in Soite.

These questions are used to assess if you have an increased risk of an occlusion in a blood vessel.

1. Use of medication that inhibits the coagulation of the blood

If you use any of the medicines that are listed below, which inhibit the coagulation of the blood, you are protected against the risk of an occlusion that a coronavirus infection may cause.

• So called blood thinners (Marevan, Eliquis, Xarelto, Lixiana, Pradaxa)
• Heparin that is injected under the skin (Fragmin, Innohep, Inhixa, Ghemaxan, Enoxaparin Becat)

If you do not use any of the above-mentioned medicines that inhibit the coagulation of blood, you may be at risk of developing an occlusion in connection with a coronavirus infection. Begin by checking your symptoms and then the risk factors.

2. Symptoms 

Are any of the criteria that are listed below met in your case:

• a fever of more than 37,5°C
• a severe cough
• shortness of breath

If you have a mild infection, medication that prevents occlusions is not needed.

If you have severe symptoms, continue to 2.1 and continue doing the assessment.

2.1 Risk factors

Do you have at least one of the risk factors that are listed below (significant risk of an occlusion):

•  Previous occlusion in a vein or artery
• Tendency to develop occlusions (such as: APC resistance, factor V Leiden gene defect, prothrombin gene defect G20210A, antithrombin deficiency, protein C or protein S deficiency, essential thrombocytosis, polycythemia vera, myeloma, PNH disease, antiphospholipid-antibody syndrome)   
•  An active cancer or malign blood disease
•  Multiple injuries or a recent spinal cord injury
•  A big operation less than one month before and/or current bed rest because of an operation
• Pregnancy
• Childbirth or a caesarean section less than six weeks before

OR

Do you have at least three of the risk factors that are listed below:

• Age at least 60 years
• Body mass index (BMI) over 30. Link: BMI calculator
• Uses a wheelchair or is paralyzed
• A heart or vascular disease (with the exception of a hypertension that is under good control)
• Venous insufficiency in a leg
• Diabetes
• Fatty liver
• An autoimmune disease (e.g. Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, a connective tissue disease, rheumatoid arthritis)
• A severe kidney disease
• A recent operation (within six weeks), a fracture in an arm or a leg or a closed plaster on a leg 
• Replacement therapy with oestrogen (orally, not as a gel or a band-aid) or a combined oral contraceptive (with the exception of a contraceptive that only contains luteal hormone i.e. minipill)
• The psychopharmaceutic drug klozapin (Leponex, Froidir, Clozapine Accord)
• Smoking.

OR

If you are ≥ 60 years old AND are mainly in bed rest for over three days.

3.  Instructions – what should I do?

If you have any of the symptoms described in point 2 (see above) and you have at least one of the risk factors listed in the first group (significant risk of an occlusion) or you have at least three risk factors listed in the second group or you are ≥ 60 years old and are mainly in bed rest for over three days, contact your health care station.

However, please note that the questions that are asked here are used for screening and you do not necessarily need medication to prevent occlusions even if you have risk factors.

During a coronavirus infection, the risk of an occlusion can be reduced by:

• Drinking enough (usually 2.5 litres per day)
• Changing one’s position often enough
• Even if you are bedridden, trying to stand up and walking regularly, changing your position, moving your legs and avoiding sleeping pills
• Moving around indoors as much as your health allows
• Using compression socks when resting in bed, if these are available and you have used them before to prevent occlusions.
• Making sure to take the blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol medication that you have been prescribed in accordance with the instructions. Measure your blood pressure and blood glucose levels if you have monitors at home.
• Stopping smoking.
• Practising good oral and dental hygiene.

Contact the health care services immediately if you have symptoms of an occlusion, such as pain in a leg or an arm or in the chest or shortness of breath, a headache that gets worse, symptoms on just one side of the body or pain in the abdomen.

Those who belong to a risk group should contact healthcare professionals more readily than others. Risk groups include

• Persons aged 60 and older
• Persons who have:
  • a severe heart disease
  • a poorly controlled pulmonary disease
  • diabetes with related organ damage
  • a chronic liver or kidney insufficiency
  • a disease that weakens the immune system such as cancer being actively treated with cytostatic
  • medication that severely weakens the immune system (such as cortisone treatment in large doses)
  • pregnant persons.

If a medicine that prevents occlusions is prescribed because of COVID-19, the patient must pay for the medicine.

The antiviral medication Paxlovid, developed to treat COVID-19 infections, is used in Soite. Paxlovid is only administered to nationally established target groups. The drug is free of charge for patients, and the decision on Paxlovid treatment is always made by a doctor.

Paxlovid medication requires a careful assessment of the situation, and the decision to start treatment is always made by a doctor. The medication starts as quickly as possible once COVID-19 symptoms emerge.

Contact us!

Please contact your health care station or the medical helpline 116 117 if you belong to the target group of the medication and have a positive result from a coronavirus test.

I got a positive result from a coronavirus test – what do I do?

It is recommended you stay at home in order to avoid spreading the infection. You will typically start infecting others from about two days before the first symptoms appear, and the risk of infecting others remains for about a week from the start of your symptoms.

You can return to your normal life when you are symptom-free. Being symptom-free means you do not have a fever and your other symptoms are significantly lessening. If you need sick leave, please contact your occupational health services or your health care centre.

The symptoms of the coronavirus disease i.e. COVID-19 can vary from a disease that is almost symptom-free to a serious disease. The symptoms can also vary as the disease progresses. Most people who get COVID-19 do not need treatment in a hospital. Instead, they recover at home. In such a case, it is important to rest and stay at home.

If you are in a bad state of health, please call 116 117 or in a case of emergency call 112.

You will find more information about the coronavirus and treatment of it on the webpage of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, THL.

I got a positive result from a coronavirus home test – what do I do?

No matter what the symptoms are, one should think of a positive result from a home test as if it was a positive result from an official test.

If a home test is positive, it is usually not necessary to verify the infection with a test in health care services.

A positive result in a home test can be verified in health care services if:

• your symptoms are serious
• you belong to a risk group
• you are pregnant
• you work in social or health care services

A person who has gotten a positive test result should avoid contact with people outside of their own home, i.e. they should stay at home in accordance with the instructions above.

I got a positive result from a coronavirus test. Should I isolate myself from persons who live in the same household?

The spread of an infection happens most easily during the first 1-2 days before the symptoms begin and during the first few days of the infection. Therefore, when the information about the positive result comes, other people living in the same household have already been exposed.

I have underlying diseases. Do I need treatment with anticoagulants?

A mild or asymptomatic coronavirus infection is not associated with a significant risk for blood clots, nor do you need treatment with anticoagulants even if you have risk factors. If you need treatment with anticoagulants for other reasons, this treatment will be carried out in accordance with instructions from your treating doctor. Make sure your fluid intake is sufficient, and try to stay physically active. 

However, it is still good idea to contact the health care services if you have risk factors (text in Finnish) and are not feeling well, and you lack the energy or capacity to be physically active. You can contact your occupational health care provider or the health care centre in your home municipality.

I have a doctor’s appointment/an operation/a visit to the laboratory, but I am ill – what should I do?

It is not recommended that you visit any place, including a laboratory, if you are ill. There are, however, exceptions depending on how acute the need of a visit or an operation is. We recommend you contact the unit you have the appointment, operation etc. to, so that they can give you specific instructions.

If your health requires a visit to health care services, the unit providing the care must always be informed about the infection. Urgent treatments and assessments of the need of care are always carried out.

I got a positive result from a coronavirus test and am pregnant/have recently given birth. What should I do?

If you are pregnant, you should contact the infectious diseases nurse in Soite who is responsible for coronavirus matters.

Do I get to find out which coronavirus variant caused my infection?

In Finland, all positive coronavirus samples are not sequenced. A small number of randomized samples are sent for sequencing to the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare THL. The results come with a delay of several weeks, and we do not inform separately about them.

How do I get sickness allowance on account of an infectious disease?

The temporary change in legislation concerning sickness allowance on account of an infectious disease was valid until the end of 2022. From the 1st of January 2023, sickness allowance on account of an infectious disease is no longer paid without an official decision about isolation/quarantine. If you need a certificate for sick leave for your employer, you can ask for it from your occupational health services or at a doctor’s reception.

Soites health care stations are divided into health and social services centres, health and social services stations and Soite’s service points.

• The health and social services centres have the most comprehensive range of services. The on-call services and receptions have been centralized to the health and social services centres. Soite’s health and social services centres (health care centres) are located in Kokkola (the main health care station), in Kannus and in Tunkkari (Veteli).
• The services that the health and social services stations offer are not constant and depend on the station. The stations offer expert receptions, receptions by doctors from different specialities as well as maternity, child health and birth control clinic services and social services. The health and social services stations (health care stations) are located in Kruunupyy, Kälviä, Toholampi and Perho.
• Soite’s service points are local low-threshold services that have a flexible range of services. Soite’s service points are located in Koivuhaka in Kokkola and in Lestijärvi, Ullava and Lohtaja.