Makeshift triage process

Back entrances, intercoms and car park triages are some of the ways general practices in Marlborough will be managing patients with possible Covid-19 symptoms.

Patients at the Springlands Health Clinic noticed new procedures in place on Monday, requiring them to answer questions about previous travel before entering the practice.

A patient who returned to get a repeat prescription this week, who wished to remain anonymous, said she was ‘‘ushered’’ to the side of the door on arrival.

She was asked where she had travelled, if she’d had any coughing symptoms, or if she’d been in contact with anyone with symptoms.

‘‘It’s normally an automatic door, but he manually opened the doors for me and closed the door after me,’’ she said.

The woman said the experience was ‘‘surreal’’ but she was happy the practice had implemented precautions.

‘‘On reflection, I’d be more concerned if they weren’t doing something,’’ she said.

‘‘It would be kind of irresponsible not to. It’s the new way we’ve got to live at the moment, and hopefully it makes a difference.’’

Springlands Health practice manager Mark Mclean said the practice had introduced phone screening a week and a half ago, and fitted an intercom system outside the door on Monday.

‘‘With the growing concerns around coronavirus, we decided that we would be screening everybody at the door that was coming into the practice.’’

If a patient had potential symptoms of coronavirus, or had been in contact with someone who had, they were asked to return to their car where a clinician would call them, Mclean said.

Since the intercom system was introduced, 10 patients had been asked to return to their cars for a phone consult. All had then been determined low risk and were allowed into the practice.

Mclean said the new procedure was not to scare people, but to protect vulnerable patients from being exposed to viruses in the waiting room.

Marlborough Primary Health Organisation (PHO) chief executive Beth Tester said all Marlborough practices were implementing measures to avoid potentially infected patients spreading the virus.

‘‘They’re stopping people coming into buildings if there’s any thought that it could possibly be coronavirus,’’ she said.

She said the PHO was working alongside Nelson Marlborough Health to establish a centralised triaging site for people with Covid-related symptoms. As well as isolating potential cases, this would also keep GP practices free to continue with their usual primary care work, she said.