The head of the Australian Medical Association has urged the health department to prioritise processing Covid-19 tests of frontline healthcare workers.

There have been reports that some doctors and nurses have been in isolation for days waiting for results.

“We’ve now made it clear that because of the crucial nature of their role in the frontline response that it’s in everyone’s interest health worker results are expedited,” Dr Tony Bartone said.

“I believe that … is now being heard by everyone and largely agreed to. It is so important because this is a national emergency and we need those workers.”

However, a nurse working in Melbourne told Guardian Australia on Friday that she had only that day received her Covid-19 test result despite being swabbed a week ago. She was required to self-isolate and remain away from her hospital workplace during that time. In Victoria patients are being told to expect a test result within 72 hours of the swab being collected.

“I’m a nurse and I was working with patients who potentially had the virus and, essentially, I got symptoms while working with those patients,” she said.

“So to be super careful, I got the test and isolated myself. I was told when they swabbed me last Friday they would put me on top of the list.”

She rang the hospital where she was tested several times – it was not the hospital where she works – asking for results but was told they were not ready.

The last time she rang, on Thursday, she was told the result was in but she could not be given it and that it had to come from her doctor or the health department. She rang her doctor who tried to get the results, but was unable to get them from the department. The department finally rang on Friday and told her she was negative.

“It was really frustrating, especially since I heard the patients I worked with, who had been tested, had since returned negative results but I still didn’t have mine and couldn’t return to work,” she said.

She added that delays meant the number of cases in Victoria may be much higher than they seemed compared to other states, if other states were receiving their results more quickly.

Guardian Australia has contacted the federal and state health departments for comment.

There is a global shortage of the test kits that pathologists use to diagnose Covid-19 which is why there is targeted testing instead of widespread testing in Australia.

The only people who should be tested under the current guidelines are those who have returned from overseas in the past 14 days and develop respiratory illness, those who have been in close contact with a confirmed Covid-19 case in the past 14 days and develop respiratory illness, and those with pneumonia.

Healthcare workers who work directly with patients and who have a respiratory illness and a fever can get tested regardless of whether they have travelled overseas or have had close contact with an infected person.

Laboratories have been working around the clock to process tests, and patients who do not need the testing criteria have been urged not to ask doctors and hospitals for the swabs as this adds to the backlog.

Do you know more? melissa.davey@theguardian.com