Wednesday 3 April 2019 9:09pm
The official opening of a new Otago School of Physiotherapy clinic in Christchurch last month.
A new School of Physiotherapy clinic in Christchurch is officially open after a ceremony attended by Alumni and former Silver Ferns physiotherapist Sharon Kearney.
The clinic is in the heart of the Health Precinct in a new building at 32 Oxford Terrace, which also houses the Canterbury DHB’s corporate office. The clinic was officially opened by Kearney on Thursday 14 March.
The clinic is open to the public and offers a range of cost-effective physiotherapy services. Patients can choose to be treated by senior clinicians or supervised physiotherapy students in their final year of training.
The clinic was based in the suburb of Barrington for more than a quarter of a decade, then moved into a temporary clinic in the inner city, before its recent move to the new purpose-designed rooms on Oxford Terrace.
Clinic Coordinator and Professional Practice Fellow Dr Olivia Stone said it was great to be in new facilities and to be able to meet the physiotherapy needs of Christchurch’s growing inner city community.
To celebrate the clinic’s opening, physiotherapy students and tutors spent the day around the Christchurch city centre in pop-up clinics offering free fitness tests to the public. Many participants also agreed for their data to be gathered for research purposes.
The Christchurch-based team were delighted by the day’s events and the level of public interest in both the clinic opening and the fitness tests, Dr Stone said.
“We had a fantastic and very positive response from the public at our pop-up clinics. I am so proud of all my students who worked very hard to coordinate and ensure that the pop-ups ran smoothly on the day. The data collection for our central city population fitness research project, and promotion of the new clinic couldn’t have worked better.”
The clinic was officially opened at an evening event featuring a speech from former Silver Fern physiotherapist Kearney and attended by the Dean of the School of Physiotherapy Leigh Hale; Physiotherapy Clinics Director Karen Taylor; Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Health Sciences) Professor Paul Brunton; and leaders from the University's Christchurch campus.
A special feature of the opening event was a karakia to bless the new building.
Dr Stone said she and her colleagues wanted to thank all of the University staff for their support and encouragement, and those specifically on the Christchurch campus for all their enthusiasm, valuable input and hard work.