Disabled Access

We are situated in an accessible courtyard off the main street of Sawbridgeworth. The public car park with disabled parking is within 50m but disabled patients may park in the courtyard with prior notice. We have a flat access and the practice is on the ground floor. Our toilet is not fully disability equipped but we can ensure sufficient privacy when required

Health and Safety

Our building is a 200 year old barn, so not built to current health and safety standards; however we take care to maintain it in good condition. There are no low beams or trip hazards. Lighting is all recessed and cables are well concealed

Infection Control

All hard surfaces are cleaned daily with antibacterial and antiseptic wipes. Flooring and carpets are cleaned regularly and sanitaryware is cleaned and disinfected daily.

The treatment couch is covered with a full sheet of disposable paper, changed for each patient and is swabbed with alcoholic disinfectant wipes at the end of each day.

Practitioners have the use of both soap and water, and alcoholic hand cleansing.

Modesty

Osteopathy relies on the accurate observation and assessment of the whole human frame. As such, patients are usually requested to remove clothing to permit this observation particularly during the initial assessment visit. At subsequent visits we will take care to only ask you to disrobe as far as necessary to permit the treatment to proceed.

If you feel at all ill at ease with the extent to which you are asked to undress, please let us know; we will always respect a request for modesty and can provide either a gown, or work within your personal preference. Should you feel more comfortable in the presence of a friend or relative, this is also possible.

Security and Data Protection

As registered data users we take extreme care to protect the data we hold. The practise is ‘paper free’ in regard to patient records and any temporary notes we write are shredded as soon as they are saved electronically. Our software maintains a full audit trail of every interaction and change of details.

All patient data is protected by a series of strong passwords and encryption, and is backed up to a fully secure off-site location every evening.

We respect patient confidentiality and will never contact any other party without the express consent of the patient unless commanded by a court order.

The nature of our building makes it impossible to fully soundproof the consulting room from the waiting room, but we make strenuous efforts to minimise the risk of breaking confidentiality.

Complaints Procedure

We trust that your experiences will fully match your expectations of our communication and consultation. In the event that you are unhappy about any aspect of our service, or your response to treatment, we request that you contact us at the earliest opportunity to discuss your concerns. We welcome contact by phone, letter or email, but must stress that telephone calls cannot always be dealt with immediately, in the interests of patient confidentiality should be have another patient in the consulting room. We will respond to all communications as soon as possible. Contact details are on our Contact page.