COVID-19 secure practice – your health is our top priority
by Samantha Berry
The last few months have been very different and testing times for all of us and I think the way we work and live will be forever changed. At Omnia Physio we have been adapting to new ways of working to create a covid-19 secure practice, using tele-health consultations and putting our Pilates classes online. These have proven to be very successful ways of working and I am sure we will continue to practice them. However, Laura and I went into physiotherapy because we enjoy face to face contact with people and love to be able to use manual therapy skills to help reduce our patients pain and to enable them to get the best out their exercises. We are very happy to be reopening our clinic, albeit with some changes to our normal way of working.
Your health and safety remains our top priority and so we will be following Public Health England and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) guidelines on the safe practices for recommencing face to face appointments. We have therefore implemented a number of changes about which we would like to inform you.
Steps we have taken to provide a COVID secure clinic
Online Initial Assessment
- As the government guidelines still recommend staying 2m away from other people we need to minimise the time we are in contact with you. As our initial assessment appointments are an hour long in order that we can make an in -depth analysis of your problem, we will continue to do this as an online video appointment. This assessment will allow us to identify the most appropriate way that we should manage your care. We have to identify a specific clinical need such as significant pain or other urgent needs which justify you attending for a face to face appointment as per our CSP guidelines
- We will diagnose your problem through our questioning and by getting you to carry out a number of test movements. We will be then give you the most appropriate advice and provide you with a personalised exercise program which we will email to you along with your personal recovery plan.
- Once we have made our initial assessment we can decide, in collaboration with you, whether it is best for you to come in for face to face treatment or to continue with video consultations. If we agree that face to face is the most appropriate option we want you to understand the risks of being in close contact during your treatment and what measures we have taken to minimise these. We will ask you to complete an online consent form which outlines the risks, what we have done to protect you, what you need to do when you attend the appointment and that you agree to these. We will also sent you a form with your appointment reminder that will ask you to confirm that you do not currently have any symptoms of COVID-19
Infection Prevention Measures
- Clinic rooms have been deep cleaned and all soft furnishings removed. Our usual pillows have been replaced with wipe clean versions. The rooms have been rearranged so that we can keep a 2m distance for as much of the appointment as possible.
- Toilet facilities will be unavailable
- Appointment times will be staggered to help social distancing and we ask that you do not arrive more than 2 minutes before your time. You will be collected from the front door of the clinic by Laura or I and we will escort you straight to the clinical room.
- We ask that you avoid bringing someone else with you to the appointment. Under 16s will still need to be accompanied by a parent or guardian who will also need to complete the COVID screening questionnaire.
- We are allowing extra time between appointments to allow for thorough cleaning of the rooms between patients.
- Hand hygiene is of great importance so we will be washing our hands before any hands on treatment according to the COVID handwashing guidelines.
- We will ask you to use hand sanitiser when you enter the clinic and to refrain from touching anything as far as possible.
PPE
- We will be wearing full PPE including face mask, apron, gloves and a visor.
- We ask that you wear a face mask which you can provide yourself or we will give you one as you enter the clinic.
Booking and Payment
We will not be accepting cash payments so there are 2 ways you can pay
- Using our secure debit card payment facility
- You can be sent an invoice so that you can make a payment directly into our bank account
We hope that you find the steps we have taken to be reassuring and you will feel confident to return to see us. Please let us know if you have any concerns or any specific things that we can do for you to help you to feel secure.
We thank you for your understanding and look forward to seeing you in the future, virtually or face to face!
Sam and Laura
