Thanks to the effect that the novel COVID-19 pandemic had on the NHS, GP surgeries were top on the list of services that remained closed for the longest. Now that they’re finally beginning to reopen again, it’s natural to feel nervous about setting foot inside your doctor’s office.

GP surgeries are stereotyped as germ-filled places, which makes sense since people only really visit their doctor if they’re sick. You may feel anxious that COVID can be more easily caught at your GP’s- but it’s actually quite the opposite.

Doctors’ offices all over the UK have massively stepped up their cleaning practices and have introduced new steps to keep their customers as safe as possible. As well as standard social distancing procedures, new cleaning equipment has been introduced which is specially targeted to stop the virus in its tracks. Here are just some of the steps GP surgeries are taking to keep COVID-19 at bay:

Social Distancing and Maximum Capacity Numbers

Most GP appointments are still happening over the phone, so you can guarantee that your doctor’s office will be a lot quieter than normal should you need a face-to-face appointment. Many GP surgeries are asking people to visit the surgery only if absolutely necessary and are allowing a limited number of people in at one time.

Inside the surgery things are likely to look different. There should only be few chairs in the waiting room which are all a safe distance apart from each other, and away from the front door and the reception desk. Hand sanitiser should also be available should you need it.

New Cleaning Equipment

Since the pandemic first began, cleaning businesses have been working behind the scenes to introduce new cleaning equipment that targets and kills the COVID-19 virus. Companies such as Ideal Cleaning are working with surgeries throughout the UK to keep them sterile, by using revolutionary new machinery like their fogging machine for COVID-19. Fogging kills all but 0.0001% of bacteria, fungi, and viruses, so you can be assured that your GP surgery is as infection-free as possible.

Not only will GP surgeries be cleaned throughout the day, but at closing time they will be given a deep clean so that they are fully sanitised for the next day. It’s truly in a doctor’s best interest to keep the virus at bay, so cleaning is a number one priority in your GP’s office.

The Vaccine

As your GP is an essential healthcare worker, they will have been offered the vaccine when it first came out. The vaccine will greatly reduce your doctor’s risk of catching the virus, meaning that they’re far less likely to pass anything onto you.

It’s each person’s choice whether they decide to be vaccinated, so if you’d rather meet with a doctor who has definitely been vaccinated, you may wish to call up your GP surgery and enquire about which doctors have received their vaccination.