COVID-19 PANDEMIC: UPDATE 3 – Response to Victoria’s Successful 0 Cases period

In the light of the recent prolonged period of 0 new COVID cases and low active cases in Victoria, and the State Government’s further relaxation of restrictions, we are pleased to be able to further slightly relax our own restrictions in all of our consulting sites, again having carefully considered all risks and benefits.
Be assured, essentially all of our infection precautions and protocols and social distancing remain in place, but we will be able to have a slightly higher daily number of patients seen, due to a reduction in time required for cleaning breaks between patients, and a slight reduction in the amount of PPE worn by our clinicians during certain in-room procedures such as Nasendoscopy.
At this stage, the following measures remain in place

• Ongoing Face-to-Face consultations:
  1. Enhanced pre-appointment COVID screening:
     • Compulsory patient and staff Temperature Scanning
     • Updated compulsory pre-appointment COVID screening questionnaire
  2. Increased PPE for patients and staff
     • Compulsory Surgical mask wearing for patients attending the clinic (BYO or provided by us on arrival)
     • Full-time Surgical masks for our patient facing staff (reception and health staff )
  3. Ongoing Social Distancing
     • Limit of patient +/- carer in each appointment
     • Waiting room spacing restrictions
  4. Ongoing cleaning measures
     • Hand sanitation for patients and staff
     • Thorough rooms cleaning between patients.
• Limitation of Telehealth Appointments: In an effort to prioritise in person consultations, and the back-log of patients waiting for such appointments, Telehealth appointments will be limited to those patients unable to travel to one of our consulting sites for an in-person appointment, or other extenuating circumstance.

We @ MEG remain here for all your ENT concerns and needs.