“We’re nearly there!…….” by clinic director Gayle Cotton
Looking back over lockdown. Since we decided to close our doors on Saturday 22 March, just prior to Boris’ decision, the Kinetic Clinic building has been a very sad and lonely place. Jess and myself have been visiting weekly to check on the security, water the plants and pick up the post, but its brought a lump to our throats once or twice I have to say… For all that have visited the Old Griffin building which is home to the Kinetic Collective, you will know the place is always buzzing, whether due to the Pilates crew preparing for a class, or the Sports Therapy team sharing banter with each other and clients. So to see it empty and so quiet is very strange. Over the course of the 10 weeks that we have been in “lockdown” we have not stopped…As a team we have been developing new ideas, improving existing processes and learning new skills regarding how to transfer our face-to-face therapies to online ‘Zoom ‘ sessions. Our pilates classes have been thriving online and it has been such a big hit with both clients and instructors alike that we are looking at trying to incorporate this somehow moving forward.
Preparing to return
On April 7th the Government decided that our type of business was an exception to the restricted businesses required to remain closed. Whilst this gave us all an initial emotional uplift, on reflection it has actually been a hinderance. For the Government to say its fine for us to open our doors to the public, in reality was ridiculous! At that time, isolation was still enforced, people weren’t allowed to go outside unless for essential reasons and social distancing was and still is 2 metres apart. Numbers of deaths due to Covid-19 was still on the rise and for us to open our doors back then would have had a massive, negative impact on transferring the disease and also put a huge stress on the NHS. So it goes without saying that we didn’t open our doors but we did hear from very confused and frustrated clients/patients desperate for therapy and exasperated that we were still closed for business. On 13th May some restrictions were lifted and unlimited exercise was allowed, meaning I could return to the golf course, making Gayle a very happy bunny! We were aware of some clinics in and around us had started to make the return back to treating clients but here at Kinetic I have always been very strict on adhering to guidelines and considering my staff’s safety as paramount. In one of our weekly team Zoom meetings the Sports Therapy/Osteopathy and admin staff all agreed that it still wasn’t safe to return to work. All of our Professional organisations were and still are advising no face to face treatment and certainly no contact within a 2 meter distance. Whilst we are encouraged that over the coming few weeks phasing back to work will occur and we will be moving in the right direction pretty soon, we will always put the protection of our patients, staff and their families first. So you can rest assured that we will only open and start treating you again when we can be confident all safety measures have been adhered to and our professional organisations give us their approval to reopen. Will the clinic environment be safe?…. Jess and myself have been working together over the past week to put together a risk assessment for both staff and visitors to the clinic. I encourage you to take a look at this document which we have added to our website.
