As of Sunday, December, 13th, 2020, The Alberta Government has ordered the closure of Businesses including Osteopathy. They have stated Physiotherapy is ok to be open. This clearly was a huge oversight and mistake.

Not a single case has been linked to Osteopathy in Alberta. Patients come in by appointment only and are spaced out. Mandatory covid protocols are adhered to such as Covid-19 Pre-screening, hospital grade sanitization, cancellation allowance due to symptoms, PPE, distancing and limited access in waiting areas just as fellow health practitioners are following who are allowed to be open.

As new as Osteopathy is in Canada, it is not a Regulated Health Profession yet however it operates as such and has Provincial and National associations and governing colleges that are approved for insurance. As the Provincial Director of one of our National Associations, I can say that our services are being utilized across Canada successfully during Covid and so, we in Alberta should be allowed to practice safely as well.  In case you didn't know, we operate on a smaller and more private scale than Physio as Osteos can only see 1 patient at a time and due to the physical scale of work, can only see a few per day. Osteos either work alone in their own small clinics or under regulated health professionals.

Our biggest concern is for the patients as we are mostly well known for our chronic pain work which is a medically necessary service. Many of us are part of the Osteopathy Chronic Pain Clinics of Canada. To highlight, we treat those with chronic pain, diseases and disabilities that require regular life sustaining maintenance such as breathing, injuries that do not wait for the lifting of restrictions, pregnant women who are in pain or have just given birth and more. These patients matter. Servicing these patients has been proven to prevent the clogging of our hospitals and medical system. We simply do not treat things that are not necessary for the health of our patients. Shutting health clinics down are doing more harm than good. Allow us like other health care practitioners to operate in our clean and sterile clinics with zero access to the general public.

If you care about patients having access to medically necessary care in a safe and controlled environment please join us in asking Premiere Jason Kenney, Health Minister Tyler Shandro, and chief medical officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw to reconsider and allow a more targeted approach in their management of Covid-19 by allowing Osteopathy to continue in Alberta after Dec. 13, 2020.