GENERAL ADVICE – APRIL 2020
Should Medicolegal Consultations Continue During the Lockdown?
There is no unbreakable rule on the matter, although a case can be made for continuance.
Factors include the consultation room still being a workplace, plaintiffs are often dependent upon recompense when fault lies elsewhere and appropriate precautions can be taken.
Those precautions include having one plaintiff in the consultation room at any one time, limiting the occupancy of the waiting room to one person only, the use of masks and gloves, the liberal use of alcoholic wipes, gels and surface agents, the use of disposable gowns and proper safe distancing.
Almost every medicolegal consultation will require a physical clinical examination. This in turn will mean that physical contact will be required. That contact can be focussed, limited in duration and also accomplished safely using the precautions listed above.
For what it’s worth, I intend to continue performing medicolegal assessments during the COVID-19 lockdown unless I am directed otherwise by the health authorities in Queensland.
