Diaverum has since the outbreak of COVID-19 been taking significant measures to sustain its services, while ensuring patient and employee safety.
The health and safety of Diaverum's patients, employees and partners are always our top priority. Diaverum has been closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation since the outbreak and has taken significant measures to sustain our services as well as ensure the safety of our staff and patients. A crisis preparedness group dedicated to COVID-19, meets regularly to review policies, communication and safety plans and to discuss appropriate contingency scenarios. This is a situation that is constantly changing, sometimes on an hourly basis, and we will continue to assess the situation accordingly.
Diaverum implemented COVID-19 contingency plans early on throughout the organisation, and we are in regular contact with country teams and public authorities in all the markets where we operate.
As our patients depend on our services and as haemodialysis patients are particularly susceptible to infections, we have re-issued detailed guidance to our clinics and clinical staff, highlighting the continued importance of strict adherence to infection control policies and procedures. We have also taken far-reaching precautionary measures to ensure that all Diaverum patients can continue to receive dialysis as needed, even if the situation escalates.
We understand that there may be growing concerns among our patients and their family members, and we are committed to help our patients best understand how they can protect themselves from this infection.
New and updated policies have also been shared across the company to mitigate risks from medical, operational, human resources and communication perspectives. The new policies have been adapted to comply with each country's health authorities’ regulations and have been translated to local languages. These policies have been communicated to all Diaverum staff and have also been turned into graphics displayed in all of our clinics and offices. Relevant information relating to COVID-19 are stored on a central internal folder to give all Diaverum staff easy and quick access to up-to-date information.
As a precaution to minimise the risk to all renal patients (Diaverum and non-Diaverum alike), Diaverum has decided to temporarily pause its d.HOLIDAY program until further notice. This means that we currently restrict holiday patients (with some individually assessed exceptions) in all our clinics and strongly advise against our patients travelling abroad.
Staff travels and large gathering restrictions have been introduced to minimise the spread of the infection. All non-essential travels are strongly discouraged especially large group face-to-face events. Pre-planned conferences and trainings have been postponed and internal meetings are being done virtually.
We will continue to closely monitor and assess the situation, as we take proactive measures to safeguard the health and wellbeing of our patients and employees.
We will continue our efforts to support our healthcare professionals and partners in providing excellent renal care to each and every one of our patients.
Stay healthy and follow the advices of your local health authorities.