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Regarding return to work post-COVID lots of online comments on other forums about increase in fees based on the cost of PPE and the increased time to sanitize/disinfect between patients will reduce the number of patients we can treat. After doing some number crunching it would appear to me that to maintain my current professional fee ie my hourly wage I would have to increase my fees by £15 per patient to take into account the massive increase in PPE and lost time. Has anyone else come to realise this?
Had an interesting chat with another local pod who wants to increase fees too but thinks that £15 is too much even though its going to cost her that. Some pods have already increased fees by £10-£15 on start back to work. What concerns me is we have many FHP’s in our area doing purely doms. I know the IOCP support FHP’s here the same as podiatrists and hopefully they will be looking into the fee situation themselves but the ones in our area are with other ‘supporting bodies’ and I can find no information that actually shows any guidance for the said FHP’s. Given that our profession has regularly had the reputation of “the poor relation” in the medical profession it worries me that their fees wont take into account the current situation and podiatrists with clinics are going to suffer with the increased costs and lose out to those not increasing their fees.
Other professions I have notice have increased their fees significantly ie physios, chiropractors and osteopaths.Im really at a loss as to what to do.
Hi Brenda you were messaging about card payments.
I use izettle very efficient receipts are either text email or you have to hand write one or you can buy a printer. If you look on izettle website they do a Star SM-L200 printer. I bought this one and have to say its brilliant running on a rechargeable battery and Bluetooth connection to your smartphone izettle app. It is expensive but I found a company online called Storekit that was cheaper and the printer rolls were £8 for 20 not £32 as on the izettle website. In actual fact they are the same size as standard card machine paper rolls. Ive bought this for post COVID return to work as it will be much quicker than hand writing a receipt. Ive had izettle a couple of years and would never go back to streamline or some of the larger providers again.Hope this information is useful
Whether we are an exception to the lockdown or not we cannot return to work without appropriate PPE.
I am anticipating a return to work once I have my sourced delivery of extremely expensive masks and anti sneeze screen. Presumably domiciliary work cannot recommence until after those who have been asked to self isolate (which for me is most of my doms) have been allowed to return to the outside world. its all very confusing.Carolyn Beattie Do you have a link to the Government Plan?
Hi Christine
the anti sneeze screen can be found at https://grafxuk.shop/products/freestanding-clinical-protection-screen-/
Ive checked the link and it works.Did anyone see the FB webinar by Damian Murray We Treat Feet group last night? Makes for some serious thinking re PPE. Use of drills both water and dust extraction could indicate the need to wear eye protection/face shield, the more advanced filtering face piece respirator and single use fluid resistant gowns. Pricing this up we could add £15+ to each treatment or be seriously out of pocket. It was interesting that he quoted that if we regularly treated 16 patients a day this would easily be reduced to 10 with gapping to allow for sanitizing etc, also making consideration for all patients/reception and other staff to be 2 metres apart could also cause issue as some practices may not have the space. Add to this that we start asking patients to pay via contactless then we see an increase in fees here on average 1.75%. Get prices, do your sums, think about the loss of time. Then consider fees. Its scary!
I have already had patients ask about increased fees. I expect every patient to wear a mask through treatment. My rationale for this is the risk of build up of micro droplets if anyone coughs or sneezes. The smaller the droplet the longer it remains airborne. I believe there is evidence that those people exposed to more of the virus on a regular basis are more likely to develop a more serious case of it. If the patient coughs and walks out the door the droplets are in the air and we are sitting in that environment far longer than the patient. If several of our daily patients cough or sneeze then this potentially increases the risk to us.Relating back to the costs of masks. Trade houses are quoting from £45-£65 for 50 masks that I could purchase from one supplier for just over £2.00/50 2 years ago. Even that supplier is selling at £35 and not allowing anyone other than front line and NHS to order anything. Frankly some places are in my own opinion over priced. £7 for a gown £6 for face shield.
Until I have assessed all the risks, costs and have enough affordable PPE to start back to work im afraid I wont be reopening.
Regarding return to work.
I have had to implement tough measures to return to work. I’m at higher risk due to asthma and auto immune issues.
I have ordered an anti sneeze screen that fits across the couch between myself and the patient. A 15 minute gap will be booked between clients to allow time for me to sanitize any areas likely to be touched such as hand rails door handles etc. Reception area will be closed and patients to arrive on time and straight into treatment room. Both myself and all patients will wear masks. Contactless card payments if possible. My biggest issue is it impossible to obtain masks,aprons and hard surface wipes. The masks have escalated in cost from £2.50 box of 50 to between £35and £65 a box of 50.This means a huge increase in weekly costs.With the gaping between patients, the increased coats of PPE and increase in card fees this will mean an increase in patient fees.