Zones
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Physical zoning | Areas of buildings (‘red zones’) used only for suspected COVID-19 patients.Areas of buildings (‘green zones’) used only for patients not suspected of having COVID-19. |
Temporal zoning | Shielded patients seen first thing in the morning, before any other patients enter the building. |
Building modifications
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One-way systems | Routes within practices that avoid staff and patients meeting in corridors where distancing cannot be maintained. |
Use of multiple entrances and exits | Side entrances used for access to ‘red zone’, minimising interaction between suspected COVID-19 patients and other patients, and reducing the amount of space necessary to create red zones. |
Repurposed spaces | Stripping bare clinic rooms for easier cleaning and semi-permanent changes to buildings (new flooring to expand clinical spaces, new walls to divide larger clinical rooms). |
Home visits
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Home visits | Shielded or vulnerable patients visited by GPs and nurses, for acute and routine care. |
Outside spaces
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Use of practice car parks or gardens | Sections of car parks used as waiting or treatment areas. |
Rationalising appointment processes
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Longer appointments | Adding 5 minutes before and after treatment-room appointments to allow staff to change into PPE beforehand and clean room afterwards. |
Consolidation of face-to-face tasks | Opportunistically doing patients’ blood tests or reviews of long-term conditions if they visit the practice for other reasons. |
Segmentation of reviews of long-term conditions | Conducting only essential physical exams or observations face to face, then completing review remotely. |