CPSA Statement: COVID-19

Public Health Recommendations for COVID-19

CPSA recognizes the challenges physicians have right now, trying to balance the public health recommendation of social distancing along with the provision of care to Albertans. We also understand that physicians know to exercise sound professional judgement when caring for their patients in the midst of this pandemic.

Unfortunately, it has come to our attention that not all physicians are following recommended public health practice when operating their clinic, to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

• We have heard of busy waiting rooms and full schedules of seeing patients in person, for issues that can be addressed using virtual care.
• We have heard about physicians working with symptoms or not self-isolating when required.

For that reason, it’s imperative to remind everyone of how important it is to follow good public health practice. CPSA expects reasonable measures be taken to minimize risk and maximize your ability to help patients. These measures might include:

• increasing your use of phone or virtual consultations,
• limiting physical examinations only to the most necessary and self-isolating when required,
• limiting exposure in waiting rooms for patients who must be seen in person, by altering your schedule, having patients wait in vehicles until they can be moved into an exam room, removing chairs from your waiting room and ensuring they are spaced at least two meters apart.