Why doctors and nurses should be tested for Covid-19

Here are three very coherent reasons why I think GPs (and practice nurses and hospital clinicians etc) should be able to be tested for coronavirus:

1) If we don't we will needlessly reduce the workforce when we most need it, as many GPs nurses and allied HPs will self isolate unnecessarily if symptomatic of upper respiratory tract infections

2) If tested positive, a recovered clinician is then presumably safe to see any and all Covid-19 patients, so we have a more robust workforce which can be deployed where most needed while protecting others.

3) We all have elderly relatives or friends or colleagues who we would then know we would be safe to treat when they are isolated and most in need of care themselves, and we could care for others in a similar way.

So, share this widely and hopefully, this common-sense approach will be heard and acted upon, and we will build in some resilience into frontline services.