"How are you?"

How quickly did you answer that question with an answer of “Fine” or “Good”?
Now, really take a moment to think about your answer.

Bridgeham has remained open to see only acute musculoskeletal patients for osteopathy to help

relieve the pressure on the NHS.
Time and time again we have heard stories of people who are suddenly working from home, sitting at tables and on chairs that are the wrong height, but it is all they have available. As a result, they are experiencing neck and shoulder pain or low back pain.

There are also those who have been furloughed who have taken on decorating or gardening projects which has resulted in aggravating existing aches and pains or creating new ones!

Trips to the GP or A&E have resulted in the prescribing of pain killers and advice to rest and “try and find an osteopath that’s open”.

We have taken our own tag line of “Broken to Brilliant and Beyond” and applied it to the challenges we have experienced in making changes to our ways of working in clinic.

At the outset we were in the “broken” phase of only being able to see emergency patients in the clinic, so we went online and provided osteopathy consultations via telephone or Zoom and Pilates classes via Zoom.
We also launched our new 30 min Rehab body area specific workshops; lower back and core, head neck and shoulders, breathing, leg tracking- foot ankle knee and hips! Our fabulous receptionist, Hayley, provided reception cover from home.

The “brilliant” phase saw us set up processes to ensure the safety of our patients and practitioners. For example, temperature checking practitioners and patients on arrival, stringent governing body led hygiene protocols including the wearing of PPE. We could then see acute patients in clinic after a triage telephone call to check it was appropriate and safe to do so.

We are now in the “beyond” phase because we can see and treat all patients including those over 70, except those who have a letter from the Government identifying them as being in an extremely vulnerable group. We ask patients to wear a face covering (or we provide one if they don’t have their own or forget), we have a new sneeze screen on our reception desk and social distancing measures have been applied.

Our reward for doing this has been to be able to treat patients who would otherwise remain in pain and be unable to go about their normal lives.
We hope you and your businesses have been able to find new ways of working through your own Broken to Brilliant journey. We look forward to a time when we can all be in the “Beyond” phase of lock-down.

Bridgeham Clinic,
1 Oak Cottage, County Oak Way Crawley RH11 7ST
Tel: 01293 542245
Web: www.bridgeham.com