Hauora Tairāwhiti has adopted Ministry of Health guidelines to help keep community health workers safe during COVID-19.
Non-essential services should be stopped and staff should keep in touch with clients by phone or email. Where they must go to peoples’ homes they need to ask about any respiratory symptoms and travel history to assess risk.
If they have no respiratory symptoms and no travel history, then personal protective equipment (ppe) is not required. Hands should be washed frequently, don’t touch your face and keep 2 metres away where possible. If a person has respiratory symptoms ask them to put a mask on.
If in doubt don't enter the home. Contact your manager to discuss seeking medical advice. Where ppe is required it will be provided by your organisation. To get ppe through Hauora Tairāwhiti, you must be trained in how to use it properly. We need to be one-hundred percent sure that requests meet the actual need of the service. This is done through the infection control nurse.
Please attribute to Carl McDonald, Hauora Tairāwhiti, Director of Allied Health and Technical