More and more businesses and services will be opening up this week as phase one of the province's relaunch strategy gets underway. 

Included in phase one is physiotherapy clinics. 

A lot of physiotherapists have been keeping busy the last couple of months by seeing their patients virtually. 

Physiotherapist with Equus Physio Keira Forsyth says it's been working well for them. 

"We've had a ton of success with it and along with it being very similar to it being in our actual clinic itself, it's also really cool to get to see you in your home environment so if you're like, hey I can't sit in this recliner we'll look at that recliner and see why you can't sit in it. So making those adaptations is actually an added benefit of doing the virtual treatments."

Cochrane Physiotherapy Clinic Owner Wes Feagan says they've been open and the majority of their appointments have been virtual but there's also been special consideration given to first responders in order to keep them in good health so they can continue to work. 

"Very trimmed down hours. So we've at least had admin staff in as a means of contacting our clinic, and what has happened over the last six weeks is, the bulk of our treatments have been done via telehealth which is a virtual platform that is run through our scheduling and charting software where the therapists and patients are on screens with each other."

Feagan says they are starting to see more patients in the clinic now which has required them to make some adjustments. 

"We're trying to still respect a lot of social distancing so what our clinic looks like right now is, we are with less staff, our treatment stalls are now double the size, we have a very large area and there's quite a bit more separation between." 

In addition to that he says "There are only two therapists allowed to work in the clinic at once right now. We're also allotting quite a bit more time for each patient, there is a lot more cleaning that is taking place, not that we were not cleaning a lot before, but there's certainly a lot more attention paid to the details of what that is. As patients come into the clinic they're not only screened on the phone, they're screened as they walk into the door, there's a lot of sanitizing stations and all of our staff are now wearing surgical masks."

Forsyth says there have been some struggles with getting the appropriate supplies at her clinic but they've been able to make it work. 

"Sourcing the PPE, personal protective equipment has been quite the feat. Some sites were charging like $175 for 10 masks which used to be just a couple dollars."

 

Wes Feagan Wes Feagan, Clinic Owner at Cochrane Physiotherapy Clinic