Uncertainty as snap lockdown forces Warrnambool businesses to close

Sarah Richards, who works for Physio Freedom, said the government had made it very clear those in private practice could only see patients via telehealth.

"Under the directive of the government, I think it's essentially only those that can be seen are those cases that are life-threatening that will end up in hospital without treatment," she said.

Even hospitals have had to close outpatient services with no home visits and exercise classes stopped.

"In that scenario there are more vulnerable people who won't essentially get seen," she said.

Ms Richards said there would be people in pain that weren't able to be seen by private physios, and when they were allowed to open up again there would be a backlog of patients.

"You know it needs to be done, but it doesn't make it any easier from a pain point of view," she said.

She said the perception of private physios was that they treat a lot of sports injuries, but they also see rehabilitation patients who are at high risk of falls, those who have had organ transplants and NDIS clients.

"You've got a lot of at-risk clients who won't get seen," Ms Richards said.

"In private practice, if you don't see people you don't get paid. It's very tricky."

Physiotherapists are just one of a slew of industries forced to shut down their services as part of the state's five-day coronavirus "circuit-breaker" lockdown.

The blanket directive from the state government has seen regional industries close their doors, and workers reporting being forced to take RDOs as they await public health advice.

South Western Physiotherapy Clinic physiotherapist Tony Pritchard said all appointments had to be cancelled with no known reschedule date.

"It was not a surprise as we knew that would happen in stage four, last time we only got to stage three, so once it's stage four it's everyone including trades and physios," he said.

"We're very much hands-on and in close contact to people so it wasn't a surprise.

"Our association has been promoting the message to try and get them to allow physios to work to keep people out of hospitals and emergency departments.

"That would only happen to a small minority of patients that would have such acute pain they might have to go to ED, though.

"We're just on hold at the moment, we had to ring all our patients and cancel and wait to see what Dan (Andrews) comes up with. There are rumours it may be extended so we're waiting to hear the announcements that are to come Wednesday."

Under stage four restrictions, only essential workers and providers are permitted to operate. Mr Pritchard said he was grateful to have not been as affected as other industries.

"Unfortunately it does affect us but in the big picture we haven't been affected like many industries," he said.

"We're doing the hard yards for Melbourne. I was surprised we were locked down too but I can understand the reasoning. If we had different restrictions they would flock to the country."

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