STOP-Do not come in through the front door if you have symptoms of Covid 19
Posted on December 2nd, 2021
We have had a significant issue this week where some patients with possible symptoms of Covid-19 such as a cough or fever have been booked for a ‘hot room appointment” and asked to come to our back door yet, they have ignored these instructions and come through the front door instead.
We would remind you that if you have possible symptoms of Covid 19 such as a cough or fever you should always call us and the clinician will arrange for you to be seen in our HOT ROOM if a face to face assessment is needed.
The HOT ROOM has a seperate entrance round the back of the building. You will be asked to call us to let us know you have arrived or ring the doorbell to let us know you are here BUT you MUST NOT come in through the front door to the waiting room.
We understand it is cold outside and may be raining, there is a small sheltered roof area round the back for you to wait for the clinician to let you in and you usually will not be kept waiting for longer than 5 minutes.
Please do not ignore these instructions. On one occasion we had a patient who actually checked themselves in and took a seat in the main waiting room. This is not acceptable or respectful towards our patients waiting in the reception area.
The front door now opens automatically during the majority of the day since September.
We are very keen to keep the front door open in order to allow our booked patients especially our vulnerable, frail patients to access the front desk reception without having to wait outside in the cold BUT for safety reasons we cannot allow patients with symptoms to walk in through the front door and may have to reverse this open door policy if we continue to have problems.