These are interesting and unsettling times, to say the least, and I hope you are doing ok.

I wanted to let you know that we will be here for you through this period, and we look forward to seeing you in our Macquarie Street & Castlereagh Street Physiotherapy clinics in the Sydney CBD. All of our expert staff remain a part of the SPS family and we’re looking forward to welcoming them back as soon as we can.

Most of our patients are still coming in to the clinic as usual, and you can be assured that we are closely following the NSW Department of Health guidelines to ensure a safe physical environment for you and my team. These include:

• Hand washing before, during and after each appointment;
• Ensuring hand sanitiser is readily available for both yourself and our team before, during, and after all classes and appointments;
• Wearing a mask and gloves if you prefer;
• Wiping down of all surfaces with hospital grade disinfectant after each use;
• Maintaining safe social distancing practices in the waiting room and common spaces;
• Commercial cleaners coming in more regularly to clean all common surfaces such as door handles and hard surfaces;
• Advising all patients and staff to postpone coming in if they’re feeling unwell and taking temperatures of all staff at the beginning of each workday.

Additionally, if you’re “stuck” at home and can’t get in, we’ve ramped up our video appointment capabilities and can use this technology effectively to guide you through your treatment. While we can’t use our hands, we can:

• understand the history of your injury and make a specific diagnosis to guide treatment;
• assess how your condition is progressing over time;
• check on your exercise quality and form via video;
• assess how your program is working and whether we can progress or change it;
• advise you on any required pain relief techniques;
• teach taping and self-release techniques;
• build functional training programs for you taking into consideration the need to adapt and keep your exercise and movement going;
• check on your work set-up and ergonomics at home;
• and more.

Our exercise prescription software allows us to communicate all of this very neatly through videos and other online communication including messaging.

Finally, if there is anything we can do for you, please don’t hesitate to touch base. This is a time to pull together and we’re passionate about supporting your health and well-being through this period of disruption. And, like all of you, we’re very much looking forward to coming out the other end and returning to normal!