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Danes gain easy access to GPs via new app

Christian Wenande
January 28th, 2019


This article is more than 5 years old.

The ‘Min Læge’ app is part of the government’s new digital health strategy

A new dawn for patients and GPs alike (photo: Health Ministry)

We’ve all been there, trying to get hold of our GP early in the morning.

“You are in line as number … 31,” the automated voice states before some dreadful panpipe version of ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ makes its ill-advised return.

Sometimes, there simply is no GP. Call one of these numbers for other doctors, they advise.

Doctor’s on call
But all that malarkey might be just an annoying memory, thanks to a new government-sanctioned app, ‘Min Læge’ (‘My Doctor’), which provides patients with direct access to their doctors via their mobile phones.

“The Danes are among the most digital in the world: we book hotels and hair appointments, pay bills and read our tax returns on the mobile phone, and we are more that adept at shopping online,” said the health minister, Ellen Trane Nørby.

“750,000 Danes have already downloaded the ’Medicinkortet’ app, which gives citizens an overview of their prescription medicine. The ‘Min Læge’ app makes contact with GPs more mobile, and that benefits the patient and the doctor.”

READ MORE: New citizen digital platform in the pipeline – with an app

Digital doctoring
Over the past week, thousands of Danes have already obtained the free app, which permits the user to see information such as their health info, GP opening hours, future appointments and vaccinations.

The app stems from the government’s digital health strategy that was presented in 2018, which aims to enhance co-operation across the health sector through digital technology and data.

The ‘Min Læge’ app is currently in its initial version, but it is expected to be further updated over the course of 2019. It can be downloaded from App Store and Google Play and can be used by nearly everyone – only 21 clinics are currently not on the app.

The first time you open the app you will be prompted to give permission so that your information can be sent from the GP’s IT system. You can delete your permission later on should you decide to no longer use the app.


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”