COVID-19, What you need to know

At Blackrock Clinic your health, safety and wellbeing are always a top priority. Our services and environment may look a little different now as we incorporate all COVID-19 precautions to protect you, our patients, and our staff.

Several extra measures have been set in place in line with national and international guidelines. We have instituted enhanced cleaning, robust screening, new procedural protocols and COVID-19 testing strategies to mitigate the risk of virus transmission.

Rest assured our high standards of clinical excellence and personal care remain central to all that we do.

Before your Hospital Visit

Before having a procedure you will be required:

• To answer a screening questionnaire to assess your risk of COVID-19, and
• You may be required to have a swab taken to test for the coronavirus.

The screening questionnaire will be carried out over the phone and you will also be reminded of it at all entry points to the hospital. It will be repeated again at your destination department.

If you require a COVID-19 swab, you will receive an appointment time to attend the hospital for this. If the results of this are positive, your surgery will be rescheduled at a future date. If your test result is negative your surgery will proceed as planned.

Reducing the Risk and What you can do to Help

Before you attend the hospital for an in-patient stay, patients should be mindful of ensuring that contact is minimised with people outside of their family group as much as possible. Physical distancing, the wearing of face mask or covering, and general conformance with all the current recommendations is highly advised.

Hand Hygiene

Hand hygiene remains the most important factor in the prevention of infection. By having clean hands, you will prevent picking up infection and also reduce any risk of contaminating surfaces. Blackrock Clinic provides alcohol gel at the correct concentration of 70% throughout the hospital, inside and outside of every patient room, and at each hospital entrance.

We have increased the disinfection of touch areas throughout the hospital which includes all waiting area chairs, door handles and bathrooms.

Masks

We provide masks at each hospital entrance for visitors and patients. Posters are displayed throughout on how to wear your mask correctly. Our teams comply with the national recommendations in relation to wearing a face mask.

Cough Etiquette

If you sneeze or cough, please do so into a tissue and then dispose of it and clean your hands,. If you do not have a tissue, please cough into your elbow.

Physical Distancing in Waiting Areas

We have introduced processes in all areas to reduce waiting times. To avoid congestion, all out-patient and emergency services are by appointment only with no walk-in service.

Important!

When attending for your appointment:

• Please attend unaccompanied where possible
• Arrive at the appointment time. If you arrive early please wait in your car, or where possible outside the building
• If you experience any delays on journeying in, please alert us as soon as you can.

Lastly

Keeping you safe in our environment is our priority. Thank you for trusting your health care needs to our hospital.

Blackrock Clinic When Your Experience Needs Ours