Private physios get the green light for COVID vaccinations
Staff at a Shropshire physiotherapy clinic have jumped at the opportunity to get coronavirus jabs.
The opportunity came last week, following a successful plea by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists (CSP) for the government to add healthcare professionals working in the independent sector to the national vaccination programme’s second tier of priority.
Steve Briggs, lead clinician at SB Sports Injury & Physiotherapy Clinic in Shifnal, registered details of staff requiring the vaccine with Teldoc on the same day that appointments became available.
“The CSP had been pushing for private clinicians to be added to the priority list for some time,” says Steve, “not so much for our safety, but for that of our patients. We had already gone to great lengths to ensure all reasonable infection prevention and control measures were in place and compliant with Public Health England guidelines, but it is good that we are now able to provide even more reassurance to patients.
“Some of our clients are elderly and vulnerable, but they are often in so much pain that they would rather risk coming to an appointment than living without the relief that hands-on physiotherapy can provide. Knowing that we have been vaccinated will be a further relief to them. It should also reduce the chances of another clinic closure like the one we had to endure last year."
