Today we say thank you to our front entrance screening teams after three years as part of the essential front line of the COVID pandemic.
The teams will complete their final shift today and, as such, we have some key messages for all staff:
- Surgical masks and hand hygiene product will remain available at public entrances.
- The application of a surgical mask by visitors will not be monitored however, and it will be essential to maintain access to PPE at the entrance to each clinical area for both staff and visitors. As always, we request that staff and managers in clinical areas support visitors in wearing/accessing masks.
- Sites will work to ensure that the stock at public entrances is checked and refreshed regularly, however, if stock depletes completely before this occurs, visitors will need to access a mask as they enter the clinical area. For this reason, we ask that the stock at entrances is preserved as much as possible for visitors to each site and that staff access their masks in their work area.
- Visitor restrictions are unchanged and ward areas will be required to support the reinforcement of these expectations with our community.
- The definition of a clinical area remains unchanged and includes waiting rooms.
- Please be aware and prepared for any other visitor and patient support activities that will also cease with the stand-down of front entrance screening – this may include transport of visitors in wheelchairs to clinical areas, transport of deliveries to patients in ward areas and the monitoring of visitors entering the site outside of our standard visiting hours.
Thank you to every team member who has been part of the screening program over the past few years, you have played such an important role in keeping our employees and patients safe.
Approved by Adjunct Professor Katrina Nankervis, Executive Director, Nursing and Midwifery