Important COVID-19 Update

Published On: May 12, 2020

Greetings to all our patients,

Due to the continued State of Emergency restrictions and guidance from The College of Chiropodists of Ontario provided by the Chief Medical Officer of Health for Ontario, our office remains closed to all non-essential and elective chiropody services until further notice.

Until we hear differently from the Government of Ontario, we still do not have an anticipated opening date. However, the rules set out by the Provincial government, do allow us to see and treat you if you have an URGENT foot health concern.

As we take steps towards reopening, we would like to share with you what we are doing to help protect you, ourselves and prevent the spread of COVID-19.

What to expect when you come to our clinic:

Screening – Screening for COVID-19 and/or its symptoms will become common place and multi-tiered. You can expect to answer questions about your health during phone conversations, at reception and/or in the treatment room. We have a pre-screening e-form that we will email to you before your appointment. This will allow you to answer all necessary questions in a secure environment and submit electronically. As required by new guidelines, we will also be recording your temperature through use of a touchless thermometer.

Support Persons: As per IPAC guidelines, we ask that those accompanying patients only enter our clinic if essential (i.e. a support person assisting a patient with a mobility impairment).

Patient mask wearing – Your appointment at our clinic will require you to bring along & wear a mask to your appointment. The mask will need to cover your nose and mouth. It needs to be made of a material that will stop droplets (saliva and nasal secretions) from entering the air.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) – Staff members that come within 2 meters of you during your time in the clinic will need to wear full PPE: face shield, mask, gown and/or scrubs, and gloves.

Social distancing measures – May include but not limited to off-limit areas, markings on floors to indicate spacing, and appointment spacing to minimize overlapping are all possible scenarios at our practice.

New Payment options In order to minimize the amount of physical interaction needed, we have increased the maximum tap amount for credit cards to $250. We also have the ability to accept by e-transfers from our patients while in clinic. As always, we are able to provide you with an e-receipt, emailed to your preferred email address.

We thank you for your understanding and patience as we work to keep all of us safe and prevent the spread of COVID-19.

What has staff been doing while the clinic is closed?

While our clinic has been closed, our chiropodists have used this time to continue their (distance) education through online courses and webinars. This has allowed them participate in webinars such as: Paediatrics: Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders, Medical Devices Reprocessing (sterilization) as well as learning more about “COVID toes”.

We have also performed a deep clean of surfaces within the clinic and removed any non-essential items from the waiting rooms (i.e books/pamphlets, products etc). While it looks a little less cozy, this will allow us to regularly disinfect all surfaces in an efficient manner. As always, our air purifier will continue to operate by filtering out any impurities in the air.

Prior to opening, all staff will undergo training on the proper use of PPE as applicable to their role.

Thank you to our patients

We would like to thank our patients for their understanding and patience while we navigate these uncertain times. We appreciate the words of encouragement and support. We are looking forward to being able to offer elective chiropody services in the near future in order to continue to provide exceptional footcare for people of all ages.

If you have an urgent foot health concern, you can reach our clinic either by phone or email:

905-845-4817 or info@werkman.ca

With warmest regards,

Rick Werkman
Chiropodist and Owner

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