Coronavirus: Guidance to private practice members on treating patients
Following the Government’s announcement on 16 March, we want to advise independent/private practice members that as a medical service you can still continue to treat patients.
This includes both patients in clinic and patients via home visits who are high risk and/or patients who are at risk of infection, breakdown/ulceration and severe pain, as long as universal precautions are used and advice is followed as per the government guidelines on our website.
We advise you to pre-screen patients and if they are symptomatic or are self-isolating due to being in contact with the virus, that you rearrange their appointment
It is down to your own individual risk assessment of your health to decide if you should be working or not as per government advice.
If you are working for the NHS follow your line manager/Trusts/National guidance.
Our full FAQs can be read here
- Follow government guidelines and CoP standards especially those on infection control
- Spread appointments apart so patients are not overlapping in the waiting room if you can
- If you have a significant number of patients choosing to stay at home consider rearranging your clinic and offer more home visits (as long as they or the household do not have symptoms)
- Offer alcohol hand gel or hand-washing facilities to patients before and after entering the clinic room
- Clean down the patient couch and chair thoroughly between patients
- Remove magazines and similar from the waiting room