At Maldor Eye Clinic, we have hand sanitiser (60% alcohol) available at the front door, and we ask patients to sanitise their hands on entering the practice.
We disinfect everything the patient has come into contact with and frequently clean surfaces that are touched by staff if possible.
This cleaning includes clinical equipment and other surfaces, such as a clipboard, that may have been contaminated with body fluids.
We ensure that all surfaces are clean before they are disinfected.
We open doors for patients, to avoid them touching the handle. If the patient touches the door handle, we disinfect it.
We Ask patients to use their own pen to sign any forms or we sanitise any pen used by our patients/clients.
Cleaning agents containing sodium hypochlorite 0.1% or 0.5% or common bleach have been shown to be effective against SARS—CoV-2 when in contact with the surface for more than 1 minute.
Ethanol of a concentration of 70% has also been shown to be effective. We use either of these in our clinics.
We ensure that surfaces or equipment are cleaned before they disinfected. Hence, you might smell any of these disinfecting agents in our practices.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends 70% ethanol solutions to disinfect reusable equipment such as chin rests, handles, trial frames and other hard surfaces.
For commonly touched surfaces, the WHO recommends 0.5% sodium hypochlorite.
We tell patients and staff to practise regular hand hygiene and provide hand sanitiser in multiple locations.
We frequently clean work areas using usual cleaning products, and frequently disinfect objects and surfaces that are touched regularly such as kettles.
All practice staff wears appropriate Personal Protective Equipment like facemasks and or shields.
We dispose of PPE according to the advice of the waste providers. Unless advised otherwise, we double bag the PPE waste and store it in a safe area for 72 hours, and then dispose of it in our normal trade waste stream.
All optometrists and other practice staff wear a fluid-resistant surgical mask (‘surgical mask’).
The same surgical mask may be worn for examining multiple patients in one session, but we are fastidious to avoid transmitting any potential virus on the front of the mask via your hands or your clothes.