We are pleased and relieved that the business will begin to reopen. We have spent time working on a plan to re-open in phases which are inline with the current government guidelines and ensure that the phases are ‘open minded’ enough to adapt should the government guidelines be modified at all.
My primary aim in these difficult times is threefold. These are the safety of our clients, the safety of our staff and ensuring we keep the risk low for all parties involved to reduce the strain on an already taxed NHS service. Much in the same way we anticipate the government has been leading the country through these uncertain times, I will try and keep this as unambiguous as possible for all concerned.
The Plan
Phase 3 with us, reflects the 3 stages we have been following at the clinic where the phases
relate to Closing (phase 1), Closed (phase 2) and Re-opening (Phase 3).
To be fully clear on how we are moving forwards in the team we are breaking down phase 3 into
3 further stages…
Phase 3a – Initial phase of re-opening
Phase 3b – Partial re-opening
Phase 3c – Full re-opening
Each phase has specific and general measures which will be taken to ensure we qualify the
stages and the adequate measures needed for us to be above safe, in terms of our response to the guidelines given to us.
So we can communicate this we have abbreviated each stage of the current phase so that we
can articulate it succinctly.
Phases of re-opening and what that means for you
Phase 3a
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- When will this phase begin
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- As of today
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- What will be starting
- (see introductory session section to book)
- Cases not able to be treated satisfactorily to resolution online will be classed as necessary to treat. These clients will be referred to those practitioners who are operating in the open clinic.
- For those not in easy catchment and are preferring hands on but not classed as essential, home visits can be arranged. These will be offered on a case by case basis following a screening session
- Clients are also asked to wear face masks or face coverings and this is added to our confirmation / notification before clients come in for sessions
- We will be opening our clinic in St.Albans Verulam Clinic to provide our physical treatment. This will be a limited service and will be for emergency/necessary treatment, classified such following our screening/virtual triage
- When will this phase begin
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- What will be stopping
- We will be running all services in tandem with any services we are re-opening
- Whilst the operating hours will increase, we will stop the back to back nature of appointments to ensure there is enough time allocated for aerosol to be got rid of
- We will stop clients coming in to the waiting area and ask them to wait outside until the practitioner has changed their PPE and wiped down the clinic room between clients (15 minutes) and calls them in
- What will be stopping
- What will be staying the same
- We will continue to deliver a very high quality service whether we are delivering it online or face to face in clinic or at your home
- We will continue to take “special measures” in clinics that are open with regards to cleanliness, reducing exposure risk, we will require those exposed to cases of Covid-19 to let themselves be known so we can devise an appropriate management plan around this on a case by case basis. Whilst we are clear that we must not come into physical contact with suspected or actual cases of Covid-19 we would like our clients to know that we know that it has been 9 weeks in some cases of people having issues and they will be dealt with but we must ensure we abide by the government guidelines
Phase 3b
- When will this phase begin
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- As the government measures relax
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- What will be starting
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- We will be looking to increase the room usage at our open clinics and relaxing the essential/emergency approach to who gets seen in the clinic
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- What will be stopping
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- This stage of phase 3 will be largely around keeping things steady whilst we transition back from reduced clinic operations in phase 3a to full clinic operations in phase 3c
- We are expecting that the viral cases will increase and we may need this phase to buffer the measures put in place rather than jumping too quickly too operating a full clinic
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- What will be staying the same
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- Pretty much everything in this phase will remain the same our aim is to hold tight until the gyms open as this will be a sign of our operations being unaffected except the ongoing precautionary measures in place
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Phase 3c
- When will this phase begin
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- We will be able to open fully all services and locations once the gym facilities we operate in are given the green light to open
- The reason for this is that our leases need to have fire safety in place and as this is wholly dependent on the gym facility having staff to be able to handle an issue should it arise, we cannot open until the gyms have this in place and are adequate staffed
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- What will be starting
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- We will be running at full capacity once this happens with safety measures in place
- It is likely we will be introducing some new online services once we have dealt with the task at hand and we are operational again
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- What will be staying the same
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- We intend to keep our online facilities operating this includes more than 30 classes per week available for our clients, remote support and online services
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Safety measures in short
Home visits
- Full PPE for all staff doing home visits
- Emergency and essential treatment will be carried out at home
- Please provide kitchen towel (to dry hands) and an easy access bin (ideally – none touch) where we can leave PPE on departure of the property to further reduce contamination spreading
- Clients must advise the clinic immediately if they are self isolating, displaying or been in contact with anyone showing symptoms as per the government website.
- Clients to wear face masks or face coverings
Clinical staff
- Clinical staff upon opening the clinics will be required to undergo PPE use training in accordance with their governing bodies
- To ensure the quality of PPE is upto the clinical standards required we will provide all consumable PPE.
- Our reception team will be trained to wear PPE and will wear this as part of their uniform
- As use of PPE is “uncomfortable” we will take this into consideration with the operations of staff during working hours
Online triage for new cases/presentations
- Our aim is to slow down the dramatic increase in clients coming into face to face contact as the business begins to open. Nothing would please us more than to see the clinics all very busy again but we must contain this by triaging clients online first.
- The triage session will not involve any treatment unless the therapist is 100% confident they can resolve the issue quickly remotely. There will be no charge for the first 15 minutes. If the session is extended and treatment is given then the normal rates for online sessions apply
Should you wish to offer any comments or feel our measures are too restrictive/not restrictive enough we would of course welcome feedback from our clients.
