Local Chiropractor Open! Award winning Basingstoke Chiropractic Clinic, Connective Chiropractic, reopens following the COVID-19 lockdown, with some new proceedures...

Local Chiropractor Open! It’s good to be back following having to close due to  the COVID-19 lockdown…

Multi award winning Chiropractic and Wellbeing Clinic, Connective Chiropractic, are proud to return after the COVID-19 lockdown. The decision to reopen has been taken in line with statutory and governmental guidance as well as regulatory, insurance and professional association guidance. We are excited to be back!

Whilst we are opening again, we do have some changes of procedure in our clinic whilst the lockdown and social distancing measures continue. This vlog explains the key changes that you can expect.

Not only are your local Chiropractors open again, we are happy to continue to offer a wide range of appointment times to suit you, despite all the changes. We are still happy to offer early and late appointments. Connective Chiropractic also remain one of few Chiropractors open on a Sunday nationwide.

Please watch the video below for some information on what to expect in the clinic post-COVID-19. Look out for our quirky videos to try to break it up: It is a long video but has everything you need to know what’s going on. A transcript of the video is below.

Local Chiropractor open: Connective Chiropractic are Chiropractors open near you in Basingstoke .

Hi there its James Harrison from Connective Chiropractic in Basingstoke here

This video explains some of our changes in procedure at Connective Chiropractic due to COVID-19.

Booking in and contacting us at this time

I’m really excited to say that we are open again and our booking systems are once again open. If you want to book an appointment the easiest way is to head to our website, click the book now tab and then follow the instructions on screen to select your appointment type and time. You can also call us too, but because we’ve had to change our call handling services, please don’t worry if you meet our answer machine. Just leave a message and your number we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

Following your booking, we need you to fill out a form. 

Once you’ve reserved your appointment we will then send you an online form to fill out that explains some of our COVID-19 procedures in the clinic. This will be sent to you by email (please check your junk inbox). This form also acts as a sneaky triage document with regards to your risks to COVID19 and your medical need. We need you to send us back this form ASAP as we will not be able to confirm your appointment without this having been filled out way in advance of your appointment.

We believe that not filling out this form in advance would inactivate our insurance policy for your session at present and so as I’m sure you will understand we can’t make any exceptions to the filling out of this form.

This form needs to be filled out for new and returning customers for every session booked in, at present.

What happens if Chiropractic care is not appropriate at this time due to COVID-19, or if we need more information from you?

Should we feel, under the guidance from our associations, insurers and regulators that face to face chiropractic care is not appropriate for you at this time, or if need more information to conduct a more thorough triage, we will be in contact with you by telephone, text or email. If we can’t see you face to face we’ll offer you an online or telephone consultation instead. Sadly our decisions on this have to be final and will he decided in line with our clinic risk assessments.

What happens at the Clinic?

PPE

So what happens at the clinic? First, please arrive in time. We hope to be waiting for you in reception so that you don’t have to be hanging around. Ideally we’d like even to be opening the doors for you so you don’t have to. It’s an opportunity at least to have a bit of luxury. When you arrive, we may be wearing personal protective equipment but don’t be alarmed. This will be standard for us and could include aprons, gloves, masks or visors. This PPE allows us under governmental guidelines to get closer to you than the 2m restrictions usually allow so that we can adjust you and make sure you receive the best care possible.

Arriving early

If you do arrive early, you can wait in your car and let us know you are here by ‘checking in’ to your appointment by the link on your confirmation email. Alternatively you can wait in our waiting area. This has been set up so that it is easy to continue social distancing. If the room for some unlikely reason is busy and we are not around yet, please do feel free to wait outside where the risks are lower and check in with us via the email. If you are running late to your appointment, please let us know as soon as you can.

Cancellation fees

Sadly at this time, because we are having to restrict the number of appointments we are offering at present, we will be charging for appointments not attended without sufficient notice or a valid excuse at this time. We will be sending out plenty of reminders for your appointment so that this shouldn’t need to happen.

Changes to the clinic itself

When you’re at the clinic, you will notice that the clinic room is a bit more sparse than usual. You may notice that there is a smell of cleaning products too as we are having to really ramp up our sanitisation between patients to reduce any risk to you or me. We have selected products that smell more like washing, flowers or citrus fruits where we can to try to make it more palatable but we are using a lot right now, so even then it could be a bit strong to start off with.

Keeping sanitary at the clinic and ensuring full consent to proceed

Once in the clinic we will ask you to take a seat and sanitise your hands using the available sanitisers, we,ll then double check there aren’t any updates to your COVID-19 status. Here we’ll get you to sign another form just to confirm it for us. This can be signed by paper or by tablet. By in large we will be asking all new patients to sign by paper as there is quite a lot to sign on our on boarding session.

Signing documents by paper: You’ll get a free pen! 

If we ask you at any point to sign by paper we will offer you one of our cleaned, branded pens for you to do so. This is for you to keep afterwards as a gift from us. If you choose to leave it with us we will make sure to cleanse or chuck it out for you.

Checking your temperature

At this time, we may take your temperature either using an ear thermometer or an infrared forehead thermometer. Here, we are just double checking that you don’t have a fever or raised temperature that could be indicative of COVID-19

Trying to keep the main part of the appointment as usual as we can. 

Following the signing of our in clinic COVID-19 form, we,ll conduct our sessions as we would usually by taking to you about your care, any aches and pains or problem spots, agreeing a course of action and getting verbal consent from you about proceeding for care. You can opt out of chiropractic care at any point and signing our COVID-19 or triage forms does not mean you have to keep on with treatments if you later decide it’s not for you.We will ask you to take your shoes off for your adjustment as standard and this is the point when we will start with chiropractic care.

Following your care with us: Rebooking 

Following your treatment from us we will ask you to pop your shoes back on and we will book any additional sessions as required. We won’t be giving out appointment cards at this time, though we will send out a confirmation text and email shortly after booking.

Payments

We would ask that all payments are made by card at this time. Our payment machines are cleaned and covered in plastic to make this secure. If however you don’t want to use the card machine, let us know in advance and we will give you our bank details to pay by BACS. From here, we will then answer any questions and guide you to the front door of the clinic where we will then say goodbye for now.

If you have a query

If at any point throughout your appointment you have a question or don’t want to continue, please just say.its our clinic philosophy to be as safe and accommodating as we can, rather than sorry later. It’s no problem if you want to rearrange before treatment starts or take some time to think about whether you’re happy to come in at this time. We continue to offer telephone and online consultations for those needing help and advice where face to face consultations are less appropriate at this time.

Additional members into the clinic and wearing your own PPE.

We are unable to invite additional family members into the clinic currently due to social distancing and risk management. However if you require an interpreter or a chaperone for treatment, please let us know at the point of booking your appointment so that we cater for this the best we can. Finally, should you wish to wear masks or your own PPE during the session, please feel free to do so. Whatever makes us all safer and more comfortable, we are okay with.

We hope this video is useful. We are local Chiropractors open, yes, but there is quite a bit of paperwork and admin going on behind the scenes to make it all safe and responsible.

I hope this video is useful to you in determining whether you have sufficient need to come into the clinic at this time. I hope too for people that may not know me already that this video has helped to break down some of the social barriers associated with meeting for the first time, given that I could be in a mask when we formally meet. The video also sneakily has also let you see some of the changes in our clinic procedure so you know what to expect and I’m hoping that this will help to ensure our clinic remains a safe space for people to heal and thrive despite everything to do with COVID-19.

I really look forward to connecting with you soon and really hope that some of these measures we’ve had to put in place won’t be around for too long.

For more details

For more details about what to expect at our sessions, our prices or for general healthcare or wellbeing advice – or indeed to book your appointment and get the ball rolling, please visit our website.

The Author and Sleep tips vlog speaker

Dr James Harrison (Chiropractor) LL.B(Hons), MChiro, MMCA, LRCC Owner and Principal Chiropractor at Connective Chiropractic