Our COVID-19 Policy

At Monash Ultrasound for Women our primary concern is, and always will be the health and safety of our patients and our team. In light of recent news on COVID-19 (Coronavirus), we are writing to update you with the specific actions we are taking to ensure your health and safety. To minimise the chance of you and our team being infected by COVID-19 we are asking for your assistance by following the instructions below:

• We ask that you do not attend if you have cold/viral/flu symptoms, have travelled overseas within the last 14 days, if you are a close contact of a known COVID-19 case, or if you or any close contact are currently awaiting a COVID-19 test result. Please ring us to change your appointment and we will accommodate you as best we can. While we understand this delay may cause stress to some patients, it is an unavoidable restriction necessary to minimise the chance of other patients and staff contracting COVID-19.

• We currently allow one support person or partner to attend an obstetric appointment. Please note, the support person or partner will be required to wear a face mask. If a partner or support person cannot wear a face mask, they MUST show evidence of a negative COVID test result from within the last 72 hours. Children are not permitted in the clinic with the exception of breastfeeding infants.

• We ask you to sanitise your hands when arriving at our clinic and use the QR Code to check-in. Some of our clinics are located in hospitals with sanitiser at the entrance, please use it as you walk in. All of our clinics have hand sanitiser at the reception desk and we ask you to please use it on arrival.

• We encourage you to bring your own water bottle. We have temporarily removed water dispensers, toys and magazines from our waiting rooms.

• Please note – it is a requirement that all people attending the clinic wear a mask while in the clinic. Effective from Wednesday 1st September, patients with a valid exemption from wearing a face mask must be able to show evidence of having a negative COVID test result performed within 72 hours of their scheduled appointment. If you are unable to meet these terms of service we will need to reschedule your appointment to another time. Patients who are unable to wear a face mask who are proceeding to have a scan will be required to wait outside the clinic after registering at the front desk. We will call you to let you know when we are ready to walk you straight into the ultrasound room.

COVID-19 typically presents with a fever, shortness of breath, dry cough and muscle aches and pains – symptoms more similar to the flu than a common cold. If you have any of these symptoms, especially if you have had contact with another person with known COVID-19, we would ask that you not attend Monash Ultrasound for Women and instead present to a COVID-19 clinic, “fever clinic” or hospital for assessment. Monash Ultrasound for Women is not equipped to test patients for COVID-19.

Upon presentation for all appointments at Monash Ultrasound for Women you will notice a series of initiatives that we have commenced to reduce the risk of spreading the COVID-19 to you and others. This will include increased frequency of cleaning of all high risk surfaces such as handrails, door handles and EFTPOS machines. On occasions, if the waiting room is full, after presenting to reception we may ask you to wait in your car to ensure we comply with physical distancing requirements. Every person attending the clinic is required to register using the QR Code so as to facilitate contact tracing if required. We understand that many of our patients may find this intrusive, but we ask for your patience as Monash Ultrasound for Women takes its duty of care to our patients and staff very seriously.

We thank you in advance for assisting our Monash Ultrasound for Women team during this time. We will update this policy as more information becomes available. Please contact one of our clinics if you have any questions or concerns.

Kind regards,

Dr Simon Meagher
Medical Director

Jonathan Whitty
General Manager