The Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt MP and Chief Medical Officer Prof. Brendan Murphy have indicated that they wish Allied Health Services to continue, so as to ease the burden on the remainder of our health system.

As a result Footlab+ is committed to providing ongoing foot and ankle care to the community.

We have implemented some changes to our consulting process in order to achieve this. We appreciate you taking the time to read through the following and if you have any questions or concerns, please call us on 98701301 or 98872233.

• We ask if you have a respiratory illness or fever do not attend your forthcoming appointment.
• Please also stay away if you have had contact with someone with Covid- 19 or have returned from overseas within the last 14 days.
• To minimise people in the waiting area, we ask that you wait in your car on arrival (please phone us to let you know have arrived)   and do not attend with non-essential others.
• We have complimentary antibacterial hand gel
• We are also encouraging contactless payment.

We have implemented a number of COVID-19 infection control strategies on top of our existing infection control policy, including:

• Screening of patients and staff for symptoms of COVID-19
• Department of Health COVID-19 training for all staff
• An update on Hand Hygiene Policy for all staff
• Increased use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for all staff
• Strict social distancing policies which includes having patients wait in the carpark for their appointment before being taken straight to a consulting room
• The highest standard of environmental cleaning, including the standard treatment/patient area sanitation that we have always performed at the conclusion of a consultation, as well as a full disinfection of the entire room every hour

For many people it is important that they continue to receive foot care. A simple interdigital corn left unattended could develop into an ulcerative lesion, or an uncomfortable ingrown toenail could precipitate an infection process. Our aim is to keep our patients comfortable and reduce the requirement for any form of medical intervention, where possible.

Footlab+ is also provided extended acute services care for our local GP practices to ease the burden on them, including:

• an increase in our fracture management services, including fiberglass casting and fitting of CAM walkers
• prescription of antibiotics (where appropriate) by an Endorsed Podiatric Prescriber for patients with foot infections
• Management of acutely infected ingrown toenails (including surgery in our dedicated procedure room, where necessary) and pre-ulcerative lesions

We look forward to continuing to provide the highest quality podiatric care during these times.