May 18, 2020 | 3 minute read
We are delighted to say that we have made plans to re-open Purity Bridge on 1st June to start seeing patients following our closure of the clinic since mid-March. However, as we are sure you will appreciate, we have taken extensive measures to maximise your safety and the safety of our staff.
All patients attending the clinic will be sent a COVID screening questionnaire that must be completed prior to the appointment. If any answers to this questionnaire raise any “red flags”, you will be contacted and if necessary, the appointment rearranged.
Therefore we will be requesting that anyone attending the clinic for an appointment arrives wearing a face mask or nose and mouth covering. We would also request that you attend your appointment alone so we minimise the number of people in the building at any one time. Please therefore arrive for your appointment on time – we apologise in advance if we turn you away if you arrive early!
There will be alcohol gel for you to use on arrival and departure from the clinic and other strict protocols in place – please see below for more information.
Finally, in order to ensure that in-person clinic appointments are only for those whose needs cannot be met via video consultation, we will only be arranging in-person appointments for people coming for clinical examinations, treatments and procedures, and for post-surgical follow-up appointments. All other appointments will be via secure video link.
The clinic rooms will be thoroughly cleaned between each appointment and at the end of each day, and our staff will be wearing appropriate PPE as set out by Public Health England and other authoritative bodies.
We appreciate it will take some time getting used to the new way of doing things, and appreciate you bearing with us with these new measures.
Protocol for patients attending Purity Bridge
- Patients to complete on-line screening questionnaire within 48 hrs of appointment
- If screening questionnaire ok, patients can attend
- Screening questionnaire to be on-line
- Alert is raised if red flagged answer
- If screening questionnaire raises anomaly, situation to be discussed and risk assessed on a case by case basis including phone call to patient
- Outcomes might be either to allow patient to attend, to postpone appointment for a further 1-2 weeks or to advise the patient to seek medical attention prior to re-booking.
- If screening questionnaire ok, patients can attend
- All patients to wear face mask/mouth & nose covering for clinic attendance
- If patient comes without, we can supply on arrival
- Patient to be provided with alcohol hand gel for use on arrival
- Ideally patient to proceed straight to clinic room on arrival
- If patient required to sit in waiting room, patient to be directed to a specific seat by Front of House (seat to be wiped down after use)
- Patient to wear mask throughout time in clinic – only to be removed if necessary for clinical examination or treatment
- Patients to use alcohol hand gel on departure
Further measures:
- No refreshments to be provided to patients – unless required after a procedure (clinical judgement)
- If patients require toilet facilities they should be instructed to follow the signage regarding wiping surfaces