Covid-19:

7th January 2022 - Covid Protocols:

Covid-19: The measures we are taking to keep you safe

Thank you for booking your appointment with Tyneside Osteopathy. Your health and safety is our biggest priority. As such, we have made the following adaptations to our clinic in order to ensure good infection control:

• We will contact you prior to your appointment to screen for any Covid related symptoms or contacts. Anyone displaying symptoms or who has been in contact with Covid-19 will unfortunately need to reschedule their treatment.

• We will also conduct your initial consultation in advance, discussing your current complaint and previous medical history. This is to reduce any unnecessary contact time and allow your face to face appointment (30 - 40 minutes) to focus on examination and treatment.

• The door will be locked when you arrive, please knock and wait for someone to let you in. As an additional precaution we will take your temperature on entry.

• Face masks are required to be worn during your visit. These can be provided if needed.

• Hand sanitiser is available to use throughout the clinic, please use this on entry and on leaving.

• Appointments will be spaced out to allow practitioners time to clean and ventilate the treatment room between appointments.

• Treatment couches, pillows and other touch points in the treatment room will be cleaned between each appointment as well as chairs, door handles and other touch points in the reception and corridor areas.

• Practitioners will be wearing the appropriate PPE including: a surgical face mask, nitrile gloves, and scrubs which will be changed between each patient.

We have put the above measures in place in order to provide you with as safe an environment as possible whilst we all navigate the ongoing pandemic. It is worth noting that, whilst we are taking every recommended precaution (and more) to reduce the risk of transmission, there is no way to completely remove this risk. We strongly advise you to consider your own personal level of risk and comfort when attending for close contact services.

We look forward to welcoming you to our clinic very soon!

Andrew & Nicola

1st March 2021

Thank you to all those who have postponed recent appointments as we attempted to reduce the number of visitors to our clinic during this time of heightened restrictions. As the number of covid infections continues to improve nationally and locally, we are now open once again for all appointments.

We are continuing with our cleaning regime, PPE and appointment spacing in order to keep you safe. This means we have fewer appointments available each day, so there may be a short wait for us to fit you in.

Many thanks for your patience and understanding and we look forward to seeing you again soon!

Andrew & Nicola

5th January 2021

Following the announcement of a further, stronger lockdown being applied to England, we have come to the difficult decision that the clinic should remain temporarily closed this week while we review our PPE and infection control measures.

As with the previous lockdowns, healthcare providers are not required to close. However, with the rising local infection rates and the uncertainty of dealing with the new variant, we want to ensure we are responding appropriately to the current situation. Our patients’ safety, as always, is our top priority.

We intend to go forward from next week seeing only urgent and emergency cases. We have defined this as: Patients who are experiencing pain which without treatment would lead them to seek NHS care or would prevent them from carrying out their job role as a key worker. This approach will be kept under review as we continue to monitor the situation locally.

We truly hope that after this lockdown, combined with the vaccination roll out, the country will be in a much better position. We feel that by limiting our services we will play our part in achieving that, whilst also being available to remove strain from the NHS where necessary.

We will continue to offer our support and advice via phone / email / zoom to anyone who needs it.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch, we will do what we can to help.

Andrew & Nicola

2nd November 2020

Following this weekend’s announcement of a second national lockdown, we want to reassure our patients that we will be remaining open.

As regulated healthcare professionals we will continue to be available to those who need us throughout this time. Since reopening in June, we have put risk assessments in place and adapted our practice and protocols enabling us to provide our services in a way which is as safe as possible. You can read about these changes here: https://tynesideosteopathy.co.uk/Covid-19

That being said, if you feel your appointment could wait and would like to cancel or reschedule it for when the restrictions ease, please let us know. In particular, patients who are clinically vulnerable have been advised to take extra care and should consider postponing their appointment if possible. Government guidance for vulnerable groups can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/…/new-national-restrictions-from-5-novem….

If you are not able to visit us in person at the moment, we are always happy to speak to you by phone, zoom or email to help in any way we can.

Take care, stay safe, we’re here if you need us!

Andrew & Nicola

22nd June 2020: Re-Opening

We are excited to welcome you back to our clinic and to help you deal with all of your lockdown acquired aches and pains!

The measures we are taking to keep you safe:

As your health and safety is our biggest priority, below we have outlined the measures we have taken in order to welcome you back as safely as possible:

• Pre appointment screening calls to avoid symptomatic patients attending the clinic

• Pre appointment consultations to keep the amount of time you are in contact with us to a minimum (approx. 20 minutes contact time)

• Appointments will be spaced out so that there is only one available per hour and appointment times are staggered between practitioners to avoid you coming into contact with other patients

• You will not have to wait in the the waiting room for your appointment, practitioners will be ready to begin the appointment on your arrival

• We will be working without a receptionist initially to reduce the number of people you come into contact with whilst at the clinic

• Practitioners will be wearing the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) including:

- Scrubs which will be changed after every appointment

- Surgical face mask

- Face shield where appropriate

- Gloves where appropriate

• Hand sanitiser is available to use throughout the clinic

• Face masks are provided for patient use

• We have replaced hand towels with disposable paper towels and have pedal bins for their disposal around the clinic

• There is a rigorous cleaning procedure in place which will occur between each appointment:

- The room will aerate for 20 minutes

- Treatment couches and pillows will be sanitised

- All surfaces will be cleaned

- All door handles will be sanitised

- Floors will be washed

Please bear with us as we make our way through this unprecedented situation. If you have any concerns at all, or any suggestions of things we could be doing better, we would very much welcome this feedback.

We have put the above measures in place in order to provide you with as safe an environment as possible whilst we all navigate the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. It is worth noting that, whilst we are taking every recommended precaution to reduce the risk of transmission, aside from social distancing, no measures are currently able to completely remove this risk. We therefore urge you to consider how necessary your appointment is at this time, as well as your own personal level of risk. This should take into account any underlying health problems and any advice you may have received from other healthcare professionals.

We look forward to welcoming you back to our clinic very soon!

Andrew & Nicola

How your appointment will now look:

As we welcome you all back to Tyneside Osteopathy there are a few things which will be different about your visit to us. Here is how your appointment will look in the current Covid -19 pandemic.

Before your appointment:

• We will make contact with you prior to your appointment to screen you for any Covid related symptoms. Anyone displaying symptoms will not be able to receive treatment and we will direct you to government advice regarding self isolation and obtaining a test.

• We will also ask some questions regarding your presenting problem, this is so that we don’t have to spend too much time discussing this when you are on the premises as we are advised to keep contact time with you to a minimum.

• Whilst our toilet facilities will be available if needed, we are trying to keep use of any shared rooms to a minimum and would therefore ask that these facilities are only used if necessary.

Arriving at your appointment:

• We need you to arrive as close to your appointment time as possible as we are currently avoiding using the waiting area. This also limits the chance of you crossing paths with another patient. If you usually attend your appointment with someone else, we ask that they wait in the car for you (or until their appointment time). If you require a chaperone in the room, please discuss this with us.

• When you first arrive the door will be locked, please knock and your practitioner will let you in.

• We will take your temperature. If this is high we will unfortunately not be able to continue with your appointment and you will be advised to return home and get a test for Covid -19.

• As you enter the clinic we will ask you to empty any loose belongings in trouser pockets etc. into a tray. This is so that they don’t need to be handled again once inside the clinic.

• We will then ask you to use the hand sanitiser provided and to put on a provided face mask if you aren’t already wearing one.

Inside the treatment room:

• As the initial consultation will have been carried out over the phone, we will go straight into examination and treatment. If there is more to discuss before we proceed with treatment, we can certainly do this.

• Your appointment will continue as normal from here!

• After your treatment, payment and any follow up bookings will be made within the room.

• As our appointment prices are now within the limit for contactless payments, we request that you use this method of payment if possible.

Leaving the clinic:

• Your practitioner will show you to the front door. As you leave, please use the hand sanitiser again. Your practitioner will close the door behind you.

• You can remove your face mask once you have left the premises, if it is disposable please dispose of this responsibly at home.

21st March 2020

With sadness, we are announcing today that we have taken the difficult decision to close the clinic for the foreseeable future.

As the situation with the covid-19 outbreak has progressed, we have been implementing increasingly strict measures to protect those most vulnerable. Unfortunately, we have now got to the point where we feel it is no longer appropriate to work in the close contact that osteopathy requires.

We will be in contact with all patients who currently have bookings with us, in order to cancel upcoming appointments for the time being.

We understand that this may be disappointing and may mean you suffering some discomfort whilst we are unable to treat you hands-on. Please know that we have made this decision with your health, safety and well-being in mind.

We will make every effort to help you in any way we can during this difficult time. We hope to use social media to continue reaching out to you; offering exercises, stretches and further advice to help you manage with any new changes to your daily routine etc. We will also be contactable, as always, via phone and email if you need any specific advice.

All of us must do everything in our power to reduce the spread of this virus, for the sake of our NHS and those working so hard on the frontline right now and for our friends, family and those vulnerable in our communities. We believe that closing our doors is the most appropriate course of action at this time.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. Keep in touch, we will be open again as soon as we can!

With much love,

Andrew & Nicola

18th March 2020

We are regularly reviewing our approach to booking appointments to ensure that we are keeping up to date with the current guidance. We have therefore implemented the following changes since our last update:

• With recommendations for social distancing, Pilates classes will no longer be taking place, until further notice. Those with classes scheduled have already been made aware of this.

• We are now asking anyone in the ‘at risk’ populations to cancel their upcoming appointments with us.

• All patients are asked to consider whether their appointment is essential. A key measure in minimising the spread of covid-19 is to limit social contact as much as possible, we are therefore asking patients to consider cancelling their appointment for the time being if they feel they can go without it.

• We will be calling patients prior to their appointment to confirm whether it is still required.

• We are working very hard to maintain stringent levels of hygiene within the practice and want to avoid additional people moving through the building if possible. With this in mind, we ask that parents do not bring their children along to appointments at this time.

The current situation is very fast moving and we anticipate that things will change further over the coming days. We are looking into ways of being able to remain in contact and continue to help those that are unable to attend face to face appointments. We will continue to update you as things develop further.

Thank you for your understanding,

Andrew & Nicola

https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/coronavirus-covid-19-uk-government-response

15th March 2020

As the situation regarding Covid-19 continues to develop, we would like to reassure our patients and visitors to Tyneside Osteopathy that we are closely following updates and guidance from the W.H.O. and the government and are taking all advised precautions with regard to personal hygiene and that of the clinic. We currently remain open and intend to run the clinic as normal until further notice.

At this point in time we would ask that anyone suffering with cold or flu like symptoms, in particular fever and/or cough, does not visit the clinic so as to minimise the risk of passing these symptoms on to our other patients.

We also ask this of anyone who has travelled from any of the affected countries within the past 14 days, whether symptoms are present or not.

Please contact us to cancel and rearrange any upcoming appointments if this applies to you.

We advise any patients who fall into one of the more at risk groups (ie. those who are over 70 years of age, have underlying health conditions, or are immunosuppressed) to consider whether your appointment is absolutely necessary at this time before choosing to attend.

No cancellation charge will apply for people rearranging due to the above reasons but we would ask that you try to give us as much notice as possible if you are not able to attend your appointment.

Pilates:

Pilates classes will go ahead as usual. Those who choose not to attend for any of the reasons stated above will have their advanced payment deferred onto a future block of classes. We would ask participants to each bring along their own towel to fold up and use as a head cushion / cushion cover. Mats and equipment will of course be cleaned regularly and we will also be taking the additional precaution of using disposable paper towel to cover the mats at this time.

As always, our priority is the health of those who visit our clinic. We therefore hope that you understand our decision to make the above recommendations. We of course remain more than happy to discuss any concerns with you and offer advice over the phone or by email.

Thank you for your support, we wish you and your family the best of health.

Andrew and Nicola

https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/coronavirus-covid-19-uk-government-response