COVID-19 Lockdown

Dear Greenside Animal Hospital Client

The Minister of Agriculture, Ms. Thoko Didiza, announced on Tuesday that veterinary services are considered to be essential and will continue operating during the upcoming lockdown period.

It will not be business as usual but Greenside Animal Hospital will stay open for pet food and veterinary healthcare product sales and essential veterinary services and care, as long as our staff stay healthy. Our grooming service will cease during the lockdown period. For more information on what services we will keep on rendering please click here.

Your pets’ health, your health and the health and well-being of our staff are paramount. If our staff contract the virus and have to be booked off, it could lead to a closure of the practice until our staff have recovered, which is something we would like to avoid at all cost.

In light of the above, we are will carry on adhering to hygiene and precautionary measures related to dealing with the virus, and amongst others we will:

• Provide only essential and necessary veterinary procedures
• Depending on our case load and our staff situation, we may shorten our working hours. For now our hours will stay the same to stagger appointments and enhance social distancing
• Encourage our clients and staff to keep as safe a distance as is practical from other persons
• Allow one healthy person to accompany their pet/s into the consulting room
• Regularly clean and disinfect working areas such as door handles, reception counters, etc.
• Provide disinfectants to clients and staff
• Ensure that staff disinfect themselves regularly to minimise risk of infection. (Please note the World Health Organisation discourages the wearing of masks and gloves in cases where people are not infected with the virus or do not work directly with infected patients.)
• Send home staff that do not need to be physically at work and allow them to work from home
• Reduce or stop visiting hours for hospitalised patient
• Arrange local accommodation and transport for staff who have to travel to work with public transport to allow these members of staff not to have to use public transport during the lockdown period
• Arrange for chronic medication to be dispensed in advance

For the procedure to make an appointment and bring your animal for a visit please click here.

You can still purchase pet food and veterinary healthcare products like tick and flea products (and much more) directly from the practice during the lockdown. If possible please phone in advance so we can get your order ready for you before you come in. Alternatively you can order via our website and have it delivered to your home. Click here to browse our website.

If you need any chronic medication to be dispensed, please phone us with this request in advance to allow us to prepare it for you and limit your waiting time in reception.

We will keep on “Sharing the Care” and we will do our best to act in a manner that reflects our sensitivity and recognition of the gravity of this pandemic both in terms of our patients, you, their owners, and our staff.

Regards
Drs Joubert Viljoen, Suzette Greubel and the Greenside Animal Hospital healthcare team