It’s important at times like these to come together in solidarity and appreciate what we are fortunate for. I would like to applaud ‘The Voice’ for making huge effort to bring back this wonderful magazine to the community. I have missed writing in it and I have missed reading it.
When Boris said “shut down”, I have never been so frightened. Not completely for fear of COVID-19 strangely enough, but the thought that I would lose everything that I have built for the last 17 years of hard work and effort. I woke every hour or so in my sleep for those first couple of weeks with a sense of terror, panic and awful thoughts about the business collapsing, losing my home and my family being let down so badly by me. Having just spent all of my savings and taken a business loan to the hilt for the beautiful shiny new clinic that I am so proud of, I was, like so many, about to lose it all. Each day however I managed to stop a payment of some kind. I managed to stop my home mortgage, then the government announced that I could get the small business grant and finally my bank allowed me to go interest only on the business loan. So with some prudent lifestyle choices I have manged to stay afloat. For all of you with business or employment that is seriously affected by this pandemic my heart goes out to you and I wish you luck.
During lockdown we quickly moved to support patients and operate a telehealth service. It was limited to who you could see but the service was a success. We obviously didn’t see anything like the same number of patients, but we had real successes in helping people getting out of pain operating over a video call. It worked so well that we will keep the service running forever. For those patients who are isolating, shielding, travelling or it is just convenient!
So after few Joe Wicks sessions, home schooling, the couch to 5K, oh and leading the response to COVID-19 alongside our new Chiropractor and Chiropractic President, Catherine Quinn for the whole chiropractic profession, we have finally opened our doors again. We have done a huge risk assessment and made many changes to the clinic for patient safety. However, the new clinic was designed with hygiene in mind. We already had a well-spaced out clinic, the walls are painted with antimicrobial hospital paint, the reception is large, cleaning schedules were already as good as you would expect. In November I had bought a UVC room sterilising lamp that kills most super bugs and is widely used in cleaning hospital operating theatres. So to add to that we have done things like spaced out the waiting chairs, added more hand sanitising stations, put up clear signage, added a sneeze screen for reception and of course added a huge amount of PPE to our stores next to vast quantities of cleaning products!
Working in scrubs and PPE was tricky to get used to. The aprons are hot, the gloves make your hands sweat and masks are hard to breath though until you get used to them. But now it is starting to feel normal and patients have a good laugh at me but then we can help them again and normality is starting to resume. The chiropractors, physiotherapists and sports therapists are working and ready to help you get better.
With the slow and careful return to seeing patients face to face I feel a huge spark of hope. A hope for the clinic. A hope for my patients. A hope for the staff. A hope for my family and a hope for humanity. We will get there, I look forward to next month where I will talk to about more normal topics like how not to break your back gardening! Take care all.
Image by S. Hermann & F. Richter from Pixabay
