The COVID 19 pandemic has well and truly been a game changer. Many industries have been locked down as Australia tries to control the spread of the virus. Following Prime Minister Scott Morrison recent announcements, we now, more than ever, understand our importance.
We sat down this week, with social distancing measures in place of course, to discuss our role as primary health care providers. As a team we decided unanimously that we needed to be here, for our local Albury Wodonga community, in their time of need. Our clients need us. As does our hospital system.
It is clear to us that our job as Osteopaths, is now, more than ever, to complement our GP’s and the Public Health system during this pandemic. We are here to take the burden off these professions, easing their loads so they can get on treating what they need to treat. Research has shown that some of the most common presenting complaints to our GP’s and Emergency are actually musculoskeletal injuries, things that we commonly treat in clinic. The stats show presentations commonly include back pain (the second most common presenting complaint), sciatica, leg pain, headaches, neck pain, osteoarthritis, bursitis and tendonitis. Stuff we see all the time. So we need to be here.
As the week came to a close, a first one we have experienced during a pandemic, I went back through our week and found some incredible things had happened. This week :
- 41% of the people we treated worked for Albury Wodonga Health. These guys are the real front-line warriors (or will be shortly) in our fight against COVID 19, so to be able to keep them on track is an amazing thrill for us.
- 3 of these individuals work specifically in the infectious disease department. Whilst they haven’t had much to do with the virus just yet, they know it is coming.
All of them we extremely complimentary to us for staying open. Each of them said “we consider you to be a vital service”.
- 34% of our clients were working from home. These are workers who have jobs that allow them the capacity to work from home. We spent a lot of time with them discussing workstation ergonomics, a passion of ours.
And
- 78% of our clients had back and neck pain. Getting people moving more comfortably is what we do best so we are glad to still be able to do this.
- 37% of these individuals said they would otherwise have been at the GP getting pain meds.
- 7 of them said they wanted our personal mobile number, because if we close, they didn’t know how they would survive.
We are confident we are taking all the necessary precautions we need to be with regards to stopping the spread of this pandemic. Practicing great hygiene is something we have always done, we have just made it more visible now to ease your concerns. Everyone at the clinic has completed the Australia Government Department of Health’s COVID 19 infection control training.
Whilst we are allowed to stay open we will do so………as serving the Albury Wodonga and surrounding community is something we get up in the morning for. We love it!
