Swift Current’s essential businesses forced to close their doors since the province-wide shutdown order went into place have been thankful to be able to re-open their doors.

Businesses such as dentists, eye-care offices, and physiotherapists across the province have been shut down since mid-march and were given the go-ahead to reopen in the first phase of the Re-open Saskatchewan plan.

Sasha Godenir, an optometrist and owner of Optical Image in Swift Current, said that they saw quite a bit of foot traffic in their business since they opened their doors on May 4.

“We started seeing patients this morning [Monday] at 9:30, and we had a great day, it was kind of exciting to be opening and sort of leading the way to get back to quote-unquote ‘normal.’ We had quite a bit of walk-in traffic people just needing some services whether they are glasses needed to be fixed, or they were needing to fix something that was broken… we had lots and lots of phone calls for appointments.”

“I think people are needing to see that services like this are available again, and we’re happy to have that available as long as it is safe.”

She added that they were forced to lay off the majority of their staff since the closure.

“We did end up laying off all of the staff. It was very detrimental to business, our business declined 90 per cent over April, so its nice to see that turnaround.”

Heath Holiday, an optometrist at Vision Care Swift Current, and the Vice President for their Association of Optometry, said that they experienced much of the same at their business.

He said that they were seeing some do-it-yourself glasses repairs when they re-opened their doors on May 4.

“We’ve seen pretty good ones. It was us doctors that were doing most all of the repairs, [we] certainly had a new appreciation for our opticians and our staff and the abilities that they have to keep people going for glasses repairs.”

He said that they are excited to have customers back in the office, but they still have restricted availability due to having only one eye-care doctor at a time in the building.

“We were able to stay on top of a little bit of patient flow, but no question there has been a lot of people that needed our services and they are coming in for those now.”

He said they were accepting urgent or emergency care situations following being shut down by the government.

The business was also forced to lay off some employees in the wake of being shut down.

“We more or less used some of the new social programs that are available and we viewed the layoffs more as temporary due to COVID, but absolutely we were going full steam ahead and then around March 17 when we shut, we had basically no income coming in at all for six or seven weeks.”

He said their goal was to get 100 per cent of their employees laid off back into the workforce.

“We’ve got to take a slow and calculated approach before that happens, and look to guidelines from our association and certainly the Chief Medical Health Officer and the government before we’re able to do anything like that.”

He said that he expected to see more anxious customers returning to their business, but he said he was happy to see people be relaxed when entering their location.

Cindy Stechyshyn, the owner of Central Avenue Physiotherapy, said that in the time they were forced to shut down, they were able to find digital ways to help their customers rehabilitate themselves.

“We did more tele-rehab, or the virtual sessions as well, so we just had a few therapists working on that for clients and offering that service, and that will be something that we continue to offer as well.”

“It's a nice avenue to have moving forward, we have lots of clients that travel a long distance to Swift Current to have treatment done, that may be something that they may choose as an option even moving forward.”

She said they have been taking every precaution to ensure everyone returning to the building stays safe.

They have staggered appointments, mandatory masks, the ability to put on medical gowns, as well as a screening process for staff and customers who use their business. They also sanitize their entire location and have begun accepting payment by E-transfer to limit interactions.

She added that they had several temporary layoffs, but is looking to bring all of their employees back eventually.

She said she appreciates the options that small businesses have been given by the government to operate during the shutdown.

All three businesses said that they were able to secure personal protective equipment for their services.