Should you still attend your dietitian consultation?
Covid-19 (Coronavirus) Update for Dietitian appointments at Nutrition Health Experts
17th March 2020
Written by Stelios Sioutis, Accredited Practising Dietitian
To our valued clients,
Nutrition Health Experts would like to provide an update in relation to the uncertainty in the community during a time of crisis. At present, Australian Government advice has been encouraging our community to engage in self-isolation, social distancing and avoiding mass gatherings. These measures are designed to limit the spread of the coronavirus throughout Australia.
Official advice is to follow these simple steps to help slow the spread of the virus and to reduce the risk of infection:
- Wash your hands with soap and water before and after eating, and also after using the toilet
- Avoid physical contact with others when possible
- Cough into your elbow or into a clean tissue, then throw the tissue in the bin
- Seek medical attention if you're feeling sick. Be aware that most people currently experiencing cold and flu symptoms won't have COVID-19
- For more information and tips to help improve your safety and wellbeing, visit the Department of Health website
At Nutrition Health Experts, we understand the extreme anxiety and uncertainty that many would be feeling during this time. We understand the desires of many to stay at home and avoid contact with other people until more certainty about the control of this virus is reached. This may impact some to want to cancel in-person appointments of any kind in the community.
Disengaging from health support is not something we would like to see from our vulnerable clients. Current advice is to ensure the vulnerable community stays as fit and healthy as possible, so that individuals who are pregnant, elderly, have a chronic disease, or those who are immunocompromised are best able to fight off a potential viral infection that occurs. Good nutrition forms a vital part of enabling an appropriate immune response to infections. For this reason, we see that it is important to encourage our community to continue meeting with the dietitian as planned.
We understand our responsibility to support our community at this uncertain time, with timely access to nutrition support, so that effective meal planning occurs in the homes of our clients and also acknowledge the importance of following Government advice to prevent transmission of Covid-19.
In order to continue to provide nutrition support for our community, Nutrition Health Experts would like to take the following precautions to assist the community to control transmission of the virus, until further notice:
- Dietetic consultations with your dietitian can continue at this time and throughout the crisis in some form, or another
- Dietitian consultations can be swapped from the ‘in person’ format to a ‘virtual’ format via telephone or video
- In person dietitian consultations can still occur with added precautions:
- Extra cleaning of the clinic and admin area will occur between every consultation using sanitary wipes of all client contact surfaces
- Hand sanitising gel and gloves will be available at the clinic for use during the consultation and during any waiting time
- Waiting area seating will be spaced at least 1.5 metres apart
- Dietitian and staff will ensure the distancing of themselves to 1.5 metres, avoiding all physical contact with clients
- Hand sanitation will be mandatory for dietitian and clients before and after each consultation
- If you have symptoms of illness, contact us to cancel or swap to an online consultation
- Our staff will not arrive at our workplace if they have any symptoms of illness or known contact with a Covid-19 case
If you would like to schedule a new appointment or modify your existing appointment, you can contact our team on (08) 7226 2919.
