June 2022 – Good News

Good news! We have been advised by our regulator that the use of face masks within our practice is no longer required by either our staff or patients attending the practice.

Anyone who wishes to continue to use one is certainly free to do so, and from time to time you may see us wearing one if we are working with an immunocompromised patient, but our general request that everyone attending the practice wear a face mask has now been removed.

That said, we would ask that people arriving at the clinic continue to use the hand sanitiser that is available just inside the reception door, and we’d also ask that anyone experiencing a loss of taste or smell or exhibiting other possible signs of covid infection to continue using common sense and either speak to us first before attending our practice or to defer their appointment for a week or so to give their body time to overcome any potential covid infection.

Lastly, we’d like to thank all of our patients for their patience. We know how challenging the past couple of years have been for so many people, and we are just so grateful for the help you have all given us in maintaining a safe and healthy environment for our team and your fellow patients.

We will obviously keep an eye on the general situation with regards to covid and will continue to abide by the advice of our regulator, but we certainly look forward to a continued improvement with regards to the covid situation not just within the U.K., but globally as well.

January 2022 – Our Practice is Open

We are open and continuing to operate in accordance with the Covid secure guidelines we currently have in place (see below), and if anything changes we will post updates on this part of our website and on our Facebook page.

Appointments are currently available on Mondays (9.30am-6.30pm), Tuesdays (1.00pm-7.30pm), Thursdays (8.30am-1.30pm) and Fridays (9.30am-6.30pm), but we do ask that you take a minute to familiarise yourself with our Covid 19 guidelines found below so that you can help us keep everyone who attends or works in our practice safe and well. Thank you.

Our Practice’s Covid 19 Guidelines

We are following all relevant government guidelines to provide a safe practice environment for our staff and patients, and we ask that anyone visiting our practice at the moment adheres to the following guidelines:

• If you or anyone in your household are experiencing or have experienced any symptoms of COVID-19 within the last ten days please do not attend the clinic, and follow the relevant government guidelines regarding self-isolation and testing to minimise the potential spread of the virus within the general community.

• If you feel you have any underlying health condition (e.g. are undergoing treatment for cancer, are on long term steroid therapy, etc) please bring this to the attention of our staff when making your first appointment with us so we can take any extra steps that may be required as a result of this to properly safeguard your wellbeing.

• Please arrive promptly at your allocated appointment time to minimise any unnecessary cross over contact with other patients or staff members.

• We ask that you please bring your own mask or face covering to your appointments. Your practitioner will also be wearing a mask and other suitable PPE when they are within your personal space. At all other times please remain at a reasonable distance away from any other person whilst you are in the clinic.

• Please do not bring anything unnecessary into the building. This includes things such as large bags, grocery shopping, pets, and even other people who do not have an appointment to be seen within our practice.

• Please use the hand sanitiser that is located just inside the main reception entrance to our practice immediately upon your arrival, and please try to not touch anything unnecessarily if you happen to be waiting in reception for your appointment.

• If possible, please try to remain standing while waiting to be seen by your practitioner. We are spacing out appointments to reduce or eliminate any potential waiting time you may encounter.

• Whenever possible our front door and all internal doors (to the extent that patient privacy and confidentiality allows) will be left open to minimise the need to touch door handles. If any of these doors need to be closed all contact points will be regularly disinfected.

• All toys, excess furniture, and our lending library have been removed from our reception, and all contact areas are being regularly cleaned.

• Our toilets are available to use, but wherever possible we ask that you try to plan ahead and use your loo at home rather than at the clinic if you can. All contact surfaces in our bathrooms are being regularly cleaned, and it goes without saying that you should always wash your hands after visiting the bathroom.

• Our reception desk work surfaces are cleaned regularly, including phones, card machines, computer keyboards, and anything else our staff need to touch. There will be no more than one front desk staff member in the clinic at any time.

• Wherever possible we ask that you use a credit or debit card to pay for your appointments – our card machine does have the contactless payment facility.

• Our practitioners are thoroughly washing/sterilising their hands after each appointment, and all contact surfaces on the treatment tables and other pieces of equipment used in the provision the treatment we provide are cleaned after each client.

• We continue to conduct regular risk assessments to ensure continued safety for everybody within our clinic.

Covid-19 Consent

We are taking all the steps recommended by the U.K. government to minimise the risk of exposure to the Covid 19 virus but we wish to make you aware that chiropractic care and other forms of treatment available within our practice do require some physical contact between a patient and their practitioner.

We will assume that anyone visiting our practice understands and consents to the potential risks associated with leaving their home and attending our practice for treatment, but we invite anyone with further queries or concerns to call us on (0191) 491 5111 before attending our practice in person.