UPDATE 25/03/2020: Physiotherapy has been declared an essential service as of 24th March which will allow Newcastle Aquatic Australian Physiotherapy to continue to provide quality care to our patients.
Due to the continuous changes to our practice in line with recommendations made by the Australian Government Department of Health and the Australian Physiotherapy Association we anticipate further changes to our normal scheduling. We have decided to discontinue all water-based group classes including Water Tai Chi and Aquacise until further notice.
Newcastle Aquatic Physiotherapy has ceased Saturday trading until further notice. Monday-Friday trading will continue as normal including all face-to-face consultations and group classes. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
This month's blog post is our position statement regarding the current state of our practices and policies in response to COVID-19 (Coronavirus).
First and foremost, we want to thank all of our staff and clients for their patience and support during this time. We understand there is a lot of uncertainty about how changes to public safety guidelines will affect our recreational and cultural activities, workplaces and schools, small businesses and our personal lives. We will continue to keep our staff informed about the latest recommendations and provide the most up-to-date evidence and guidelines to our clients.
At Newcastle Aquatic Physiotherapy, the health and safety of our team, clients and the community as a whole, is our priority. This is even more important given the escalating COVID-19 health crisis.
We have always maintained the highest standards of hygiene and infection control practices, but have taken the additional step of implementing a number of extra measures during this time. These practices include:
Disinfecting treatment beds after each patient
Cleaning all high touch surfaces, such as the reception counter and door handles several times per day with disinfectant.
Availability of hand sanitizer and the use of disposable personal protective equipment Signage to remind our patrons of the issues we are experiencing.
Reminding everyone to constantly wash their hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
For our clients and associated support staff, we ask that you follow Department of Health guidelines to keep yourself and others safe during this time, including appropriate hand-hygiene and social distancing where possible.
Please practice self-isolation if you have returned from overseas in the last 14 days and/or have been in close contact with a confirmed or suspected COVID-19 case in the past 14 days. If you have any respiratory symptoms (including any flu-like symptoms such as coughing, sore throat and fatigue, fever, shortness of breath) or are feeling generally unwell we ask that you do not attend our practice. If any of these apply to you, please contact us so that we can reschedule any existing appointments until after a period of self-isolation.
At this time our water-based and land-based classes are still available during the week and our pool is still available for casual visits given you have the above clearance. Our physiotherapists are available for one-on-one consultations unless otherwise stated.
If you have any questions or require further information, please contact us via teleohone at (02) 4955 0143 or via email at aquaticphysio@bigpond.com.
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