COVID-19 Risk Assessment

We have carried out a COVID-19 risk assessment and shared the results with the people who work here.

Our main concerns are:

  • Minimising face to face contact with our clients, as normal consultations take at least 15 minutes, are in a shared air space and involve being less than 2m apart.
  • Handling pets from many households who might carry the virus on their fur or mucous membranes.
  • Caring for sick pets involves many procedures that require our vets and nurses to work closer than 2 metres, even within 1 metre. So an asymptomatic team member carrying COVID-19 could easily infect their colleagues, the workplace and potentially our clients.
  • If any member of the team became sick or tested positive, infection could spread through the team resulting in our practice no longer being able to provide even necessary emergency care to our patients.

So for the protection of our clients, our team and so that we may continue to care for your pets:

  1. Most of the team are now double vaccinated, although some team members are still high-risk due to pregnancy or pre-existing health conditions.
  2. The whole team carrow out lateral flow tests at least twice a week
  3. We continue to wear PPE : at least surgical quality masks and plastic gowns.
  4. We continue to carry out frequent hand hygiene and surface and touchpoint disinfection.
  5. We continue to keep our practice building mostly closed to clients. By prearrangement clients may have face to face consults with the vet. The client must wear a mask, sanitise their hands before entry and is escorted into the building when the vet is ready.
  6. Otherwise we are continuing the car park collection as before. We request that you wear a mask and respect our need to maintain a 1m distance.
  7. We can offer remote video consultations
  8. We have set up a free direct postal service option for our Healthy Pet Club members, and have introduced OurVetShop, a direct postal ordering service for parasiticides, food and other medicine for our clients’ convenience and to save visits to the practice.
  9. To reduce the number of people in the building, many of our team are working from home, answering the phones, helping with advice and nurse consults, payments, accounts and insurance. They all have access to the practice records and the telephone system.

Throughout 2021 we will continue to provide the best service that we can, mindful of the safety of our clients and team.