National Orthopaedic Division COVID 19 Update

March 17, 2020

Dear Members

With the ongoing and increased uncertainty that COVID-19 is causing, we wanted to assure you that our highest priority is the health and well-being of our membership. Your Orthopaedic Division leadership team has been monitoring the situation and has been meeting as a group to develop a plan of action for the near future.

We stand as one with all of our members and healthcare colleagues who are facing challenges and difficult decisions that less than a few weeks ago were not on the radar.

We encourage you to continue to follow the resources made available through the Canadian Physiotherapy Association (CPA) and know that we will do our best to support our members in this challenging time.

In keeping in line with communications with members from CPA, and based on new information communicated across the Country in the last 48 hours from both Health Canada and the World Health Organization (WHO), we have made the very difficult decisions to cancel all of our upcoming in-person Advanced Integrated Musculoskeletal (Syllabus) courses, Short courses, Exams and any Upcoming Networking events. If you were scheduled to participate in a course from March 16th- May 31st, 2020, communications would have been made with you directly by the Course Organizer. We appreciate the value that being able to partake in our Internationally Accredited Education System brings and will begin to look at exploring alternate dates for these courses to take place. We will ensure to continue communications with our members as information is rapidly evolving.

We will also look to rescheduling our Annual Meeting, which was to take place in Kelowna BC on May 1st, 2020. We will look to move this to an E – Annual Meeting format and provide members with information as decisions are made.

For those Members that had registered for events at our upcoming Instructors meeting in Kelowna, please note the following events that have also been cancelled;

  • May 1, 2020 – “You had me at Merlot” winery tour
  • May 2, 2020 – NOD Short Course

If you were booked for the events in Kelowna BC, over the next week, we will refund to your credit card any fees paid for “You had me at Merlot” and/or NOD Short Course. These refunds take approximately 7 to 10 business days to appear on your credit card statement.

The Coast Hotel, Kelowna, has been very accommodating and cooperative during this time, and they will automatically cancel your hotel reservations with no penalty. We advise you to contact your travel partner (if applicable) on how to handle travel refunds through them.

Most importantly, our thoughts are with those already dealing with the virus. We hope you and your loved ones remain safe and healthy.

National Orthopaedic Division, Canadian Physiotherapy Association