As the full impact of COVID-19 is being felt by people across the UK and round the world, we wanted to keep you fully informed as to the measures that we are taking to ensure that Masterfix can continue to provide our normal and full range of services throughout what we anticipate will be a difficult and potentially lengthy period for both companies and individuals.
Over the last few days we have been implementing some significant changes that will support full and on-going delivery of all of our services.
Our already established Disaster Recovery Plan has been well and truly tested and I am delighted to confirm that we have successfully migrated all office based staff to home working and with all office functionality (contact numbers, systems, e mails and phones) – this is a sustainable plan if required, not just a short term solution
A summary of these changes and actions are below
Although we have multiple office locations, as referred to above, office & field based staff are now working remotely. Offices will remain open but with very limited contact and the majority of the Masterfix team will be working from home
Contact details remain unchanged and all personnel will have direct access to e mails :-
24/7 Contact: 0207 518 8600
email: service@master-fix.com
Our Deployment Teams will continue to ask very specific questions to allow us to assess the potential exposure to the virus when entering premises. These questions are in line with Public Health England and other Government source guidelines and I am sure will continue to evolve as more is known about the spread of the virus. Our most recent version now considers those recently identified “at risk” groups:-
-Occupants aged over 70
-Occupants with underlying health concerns
-Occupants who are pregnant
-Occupants who are otherwise vulnerable
All Engineers and Service Partners have consented to fully support us and will continue to operate remotely as usual
Contracts Managers and Surveyors will remain available to attend to both urgent and routine enquiries
Helping you service properties affected by the Virus
Significantly, we acknowledge that more and more commercial and residential premises will be affected by the virus.
To this end we are finalising details of a safe system of work that will allow us (at your request and with the consent of the occupant) to enter premises where there is known to be self-isolation, symptoms and actual infection but that there is an emergency maintenance issue that needs to be attended to
When this situation is notified or identified, the handling of this request will be passed to our “Specialist Deployment Team” who will :-
– undertake an over the phone/ e mail assessment that will determine property conditions with a specific focus on access to the property and if the layout of the property allows those affected to be in a different room from the working area
– assess the vulnerability of the client
– determine the emergency of the request and to see if any alternative short term solutions are available
– to seek their consent
– to confirm in writing the details of the controls agreed (the risk Assessment and control measures)
– to discuss and agree all of the above with the Front Line Engineer.
Our Front Line Engineers have been selected from our existing team of experienced engineers, fully consented and will have been provided with full awareness training and with significantly increased levels of PPE that will also be safely disposed of following the completion of the task.
We appreciate that the situation is ever-changing and we will continue to monitor closely, and look to take all necessary action to be able to continue to serve you throughout this difficult period.
We continue to welcome any observations or requirements for additional controls to be implemented.
Chris Ball
Managing Director
