Patients with ticks at the Emergency Department. One person was turned away, one was admitted

The woman visited the Emergency Department at the county hospital in Bolesławiec on Friday, June 16. In an email to the editorial office, she wrote:

I reported to the Emergency Department registration desk at 6:00 p.m.; the reason was a tick embedded in my skin. The man at registration first told me to go to a primary care doctor. When I replied that at 6:00 p.m. the primary care doctor was no longer seeing patients, he answered that a nurse would be there in 10–15 minutes to remove it. I asked whether a doctor could examine me, because the area around the tick was beginning to turn red. The man replied that there was no doctor.

When my fiancé asked about a 24-hour clinic, the man also stated that there was no such clinic at the hospital. He did not provide information about where such a clinic was located. However, the internet indicates that one is located at 4 Jeleniogórska Street in Bolesławiec, that is, at the address of the Bolesławiec ZOZ.

The woman went to Jelenia Góra, where—as she writes—she received professional medical assistance and advice.

Asked for comment, Nikolaj Lambrinow, director of medical services at the Bolesławiec ZOZ, told us that the reader had reported to the Emergency Department before 6:00 p.m., during the hours when primary care clinics were open. That was why she was directed to a primary care doctor. In fact, two people with ticks reported to the Emergency Department on Friday. The second arrived after 6:00 p.m. and was treated. “I would regard this situation as a misunderstanding rather than as us turning someone away,” the director emphasizes. “We do not turn away people with ticks.”