COVID-19: Staying Safe in General Practice – Air Circulation

The aircon should be blowing from the doctor towards the patient (Figures 1 and 2). This will reduce the risk of exposure. Further, it is also recommended that the doctor attending to a patient in a GP practice should wear surgical masks and a face shield. This is because in the GP practice, there is usually no triage counter and all patients should be treated as suspected COVID19 patients. If the doctor is performing an Aerosol Generating Procedure, then an N95 mask should be worn instead of the surgical mask.

Figure 1:  Doctor sitting with his back towards the aircon blower.

I just open the door of consultation room to let the air flow out, and I can see the waiting patient outside. I only close the door when doing Ultra Sound of ante-natal patient, and do it quickly not more than 10 minutes.

Figure 2:  Doctor standing with her back towards the aircon blower

The two pictures of clinic arrangement above, and the first paragraph text by: -

Dr Victor Hoe , Professor of Occupational and Environmental Health, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya.
10 May 2020
LINK >>> https://spm.um.edu.my/2020/05/10/covid-19-staying-safe-in-general-practice-air-circulation/



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