Covid precautions at PDC

We're working hard to minimise the risks associated with COVID-19 at PDC Health Hub.

While it is not possible for us to completely eliminate risk of potential exposure to infective illnesses, including COVID-19, at our clinics, you can rest assured that we have a number of safety measures in place to keep us all safe.

Covid-19 can infect vaccinated and unvaccinated persons, and you may be asymptomatic. This means that transmission of COVID-19 can occur from and between staff, patients, patient carers and other persons vising our clinic. All of our staff are vaccinated against COVID-19.

PDC Health Hub has legal occupational health and safety obligation to minimise the risk of transmission of COVID-19, so we may have to adopt certain ways of providing your care to address this risk. We will always keep you informed of any changes.

‍If any of our staff become unwell from catching an infectious illness (including COVID-19), this may result in them being unable to work in the clinic while they are tested / recover. We will do everything we can to ensure your healthcare needs are met and addressed. This may include seeing a different practitioner, or having to reschedule your appointment.

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This is how we are managing the risk of Covid-19 transmission at PDC Health Hub:

• We will follow relevant government public health guidelines and requirements. This may include an obligation to notify government bodies / public health authorities regarding persons who have COVID-19 infections. If this is the case, we will only provide the minimum necessary information (e.g. QR code check in data) to the relevant authorities.
• Our staff may initially talk to you by phone to determine if there are any risks we need to address, before you are able to attend the clinic in person. This discussion could include screening questions for patients at high risk of COVID-19 transmission.
• We may ask you to wait outside the clinic until we are ready to see you, in which case we will call you in.
• We will need to know, prior to appointments or at the time of your appointment being confirmed via SMS or telephone of any possible upper respiratory symptoms you have experienced; whether you are unwell; whether you are a close contact of someone with COVID-19; whether you have COVID-19; or whether you should be in isolation.
• When the risk of COVID-19 transmission is very high, we may need to delay care; arrange care elsewhere (e.g. hospital; respiratory clinics) or ensure certain steps occur beforehand (e.g. COVID-19 testing such as PCR tests and rapid antigen tests).
• We may need to enquire about your immunity to COVID-19 (vaccination status / past infection) to gauge the risk COVID-19 transmission poses to you. While you don’t have to disclose this information, this might interfere with our ability to minimise risk to you, to provide the best care, or give you the best advice.
• It may be necessary or more appropriate for us to conduct a consultation by telehealth (phone or video).
• All patients must sign into our practice using the relevant, SafeWA app and QR code or manually sign in with the required details, when this is required by the authorities.
• Patients may be required to wear a mask (even if this is not the current public health mandate).
• Those attending the clinic should physically distance wherever possible.
• We ask that patients attend their appointment alone if possible (or with only one other person if necessary).
• We may arrange consultations at specific times (e.g. first of the day / last of the day) to reduce the risk to others who might be at the clinic.
• Some consultations may require staff to be in full personal protective equipment.
• As some of these steps may require additional time and resources on behalf of our staff, we reserve the right to not bulk bill these consultations if the cost burden to us is significant. We will inform you of any out of pocket cost that will be incurred, which we will obtain prior to the consultation being held.

Our approach to minimise the transmission of COVID-19 at the practice applies to all patients, and aligns with the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care’s COVID-19 infection prevention and control risk management, and the Medical Board Code of Conduct.

If you have any queries about how we manage these risks, please do not hesitate to discuss these efforts with your clinician or the Practice Manager.

We thank you for your cooperation and encourage you to get in touch with us if you have any concerns or questions.

We can be contacted via phone 08 6110 0570 or email admin@pdchealthhub.com.au

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