Old Quarter Physiotherapy Clinic is currently open and will remain open in keeping with government guidelines. Every effort will be made to promote the safety of patients and clinicians.
The Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists (ISCP) have confirmed that private outpatient musculoskeletal physiotherapy is classed as an essential service under this Health Service Executive (HSE) publication; https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/dfeb8f-list-of-essential-service-providers-under-new-public-health-guidelin/#human-health-and-social-work-activities
Chartered Physiotherapists would come under section 15, sub sections: ‘Paramedical and essential therapy activities’ AND ‘‘Primary Care, general and specific medical practice activities provided by public and private providers.
To minimize risk of infection transmission there will be a number of precautions taken by staff. Patients will also be asked to take precautionary measures.
All measures have been taken in consideration of published guidelines from the HSE, ISCP and National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI).
Preparation for Opening
1) Staff have completed online World Health Organization modules in “Hand Hygiene” and “Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) for Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)”.
2) Signage has been placed at relevant points to facilitate effective hand hygiene and respiratory hygiene for patients.
3) Clinic rooms and waiting areas have been stocked with additional 70% alcohol gel.
4) Clinical risk waste bins have been set up in clinic rooms for disposal of relevant material.
5) Diaries have been restructured to allow adequate time between patients for decontamination of the clinic room.
Before Each Consultation
1) Each patient will be screened with a covid-19 screening questionnaire as approved by the National Standards Authority of Ireland. This will be done electronically as much as possible.
2) In any case where there is suspicion of Covid –19 symptoms or a patient has had close contact with a confirmed case a face to face appointment will not be offered. Online appointments are available for any patient whose preference is not to have a face to face appointment.
3) Patients will be encouraged to wait in their car until their exact appointment time. This will limit shared use of waiting rooms. Capacity in the waiting room has also been reduced.
4) Avoiding contact with door handles will be encouraged.
5) Patients will be encouraged to use alcohol gel in the waiting area, soap and water in the patient toilets or alcohol gel in the clinic room.
During Each Consultation
1) Physical distancing of 2 metres will be maintained as much as possible during consultations. This includes at all stages during history taking, discussion about diagnosis and treatment plans and supervision of exercise.
2) The physical examination will be conducted in a manner to limit patient contact. Manual treatments will be limited to evidence based and clinically reasoned scenarios.
3) Each physiotherapist will interpret HSE and ISCP guidelines for personal protective equipment (PPE) and implement their own protocol in keeping with individual risk assessment.
4) Minimum PPE use will involve a mask for both patient and physiotherapist. Maximum PPE use will involve patient wearing a mask and physiotherapist wearing mask, plastic apron, gloves and protective eyewear.
5) Hand hygiene will be performed at the beginning of each consultation. This will be repeated before any patient contact and after any patient contact. World Health Organization “5 moments” guidelines will determine when hand hygiene is required.
6) At the end of each consultation each patient will be asked to perform hand hygiene and move directly to their car.
Between Each Consultation
1) Single use PPE will be disposed of as clinical risk waste or non clinical risk waste as relevant.
2) Hand hygiene will be performed before cleaning begins.
3) Patient contact surfaces with be cleaned with a disinfectant product.
Monitoring
1) Protocols will be reviewed at weekly intervals to monitor effectiveness and any incidents will be documented.
2) Any updated guidance from relevant regulatory bodies will be reviewed and protocols will be updated here.
Signed electronically on May 11th 2020
Patrick Carroll
Appendix 1: Patrick has completed the following WHO online training modules.
