Back to clinic with COVID-19 in mind

A challenging 6 months

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented me with a number of challenges over the last 6 months, but at the forefront of my mind has always been patient safety.

Now that I am fully back up and running from Thornbury Hospital and Dronfield Health and Therapy Clinic, I was keen to see what extra safety precautions I could put in my place for my patients (and myself!) during their appointments.

New equipment

This past month has seen me introduce the Medicair™ – a fantastic piece of kit which purifies the air in my clinic rooms. The Medicair™ is particularly unique in that it is cylindrical so picks up particles in the air from 360 degrees rather than being limited to a wall or corner, for example. Once collected in the Medicair™, the air particles pass through its sophisticated filtration system, effectively eliminating bacteria, viruses, pathogens, and such.

This is a hospital grade piece of equipment which delivers 99.99% air sterilisation as well as the additional reassurance to my patients that the environment they are being seen in is as safe as possible.

I feel that this equipment really gives an extra layer of safety, especially as a lot of what we do in clinic is unavoidably close contact. The Medicair™ is switched on first thing every morning and monitors the air quality levels throughout the day. A real plus point has been that it is incredibly quiet so does not disturb any testing that we do in your appointment.

What else?

I have invested in two Medicairs™ so far, one for Thornbury and one for Dronfield but of course there are additional measures in place for every appointment. These are:

• Completion of a COVID survey pre-appointment
• Temperature check on arrival
• I wear full PPE including face shield and can provide you with a face mask if you have not brought your own
• Full wiping down of equipment between patients and enhanced clinic cleaning
• All payments can be done online or over the phone to avoid unnecessary contact

For hearing aid follow-ups, many of the manufacturers hearing aids that I use allow for what we call ‘remote fitting sessions’; this is where I can connect with you via video call and make real-time changes to your settings through the hearing aid software. This is perfect for when you just need a few tweaks and can be done wherever you are as long as the internet connection is stable. If this is something that would be helpful, do let me know.

Positive feedback so far!

I do hope that these extra measures go some way to make you feel even more reassured that you are in safe hands at Peter Byrom Audiology, but I have been delighted to receive some positive feedback from patients so far:

‘Very clear and fast communication, stringent safety measures in response to COVID, and a very professional experience.’

Mark F.

‘He adhered totally to the Covid measures and alleviated any anxiety I may have had in attending the clinic.’

Roger M.

‘As my appointment was during the Coronavirus pandemic, I also found the safety precautions taken to be very thorough and I felt both of us were in a very safe environment

Simon C’

‘This was my first appointment since the Covid-19 pandemic. A number of safety measures were in place. I filled in a pre-appointment Covid survey, had to wear a face mask and pass a temperature check. Peter was wearing theatre ‘scrubs’. As a result I felt very safe throughout the whole process.’

Pete

If you have any specific concerns around attending your appointment and COVID, please just get in contact via phone, email or the website and I would be happy to discuss them with you.

Looking forward to seeing you soon.

Stay safe,

Peter