Feeling let down by the NHS or your GP?
Before we start, let’s get one thing straight. The NHS is an amazing service with some absolutely brilliant people in it and we are so lucky to be able to use this resource as a life-saving tool and an unbelievably great healthcare system.
This blog is not meant to take a dig at anyone, but merely highlight something we are told every single week and to help you if you experienced something similar.
I’m proud to live in the UK and to have the privilege to be able to use the system and be looked after by some of the amazing people that work within it.
One of the things we hear is that people go to see their GP and a physiotherapist in the NHS and they often feel that the care that they get doesn’t always solve their problems.
One of the main reasons for this is that unfortunately the NHS as you know is state funded and they don’t have the capabilities at this stage to be able to provide long-term outpatient care for things like chronic back pain, neck pain, sciatica. There are many physiotherapists working in the NHS who are brilliant and knowledgeable, but they aren’t given the resources or time to give people the help they need.
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These conditions take time and resources to be able to heal properly. It’s something that NHS physios don’t have. They do their absolute best with the resources that are available to them. They’re unbelievably skilled and well-trained and a lot of them have great success with a lot of chronic conditions.
Unfortunately, they just don’t have the time and the amount of sessions to be able to make a lasting change in the chronic condition. Acute injuries, post-healing fractures, tendon injuries, they are brilliant with. But more chronic long-term multifactorial problems like back pain, sciatica and neck issues are going to take time and it’s just not what they have.
What do NHS Physio’s do really well?
They can diagnose a problem better than anybody I know. They are the experts in that. They see huge amounts of conditions day in day out and can diagnose things at the drop of a hat.
They also prescribe rehabilitation exercises fantastically well. One of the main issues with rehab exercises is that as human beings, we don’t always keep them up. Once the pain is starting to reduce, then we think that the problem is getting better and we stop doing the exercises. The exercises are there to firstly, get rid of the pain and then we change the exercise and adapt them to build strength, core stability, to prevent relapse as we go forward.
Why do we see so many clients that have come from NHS physio?
One of the main reasons is the NHS physio is getting them on the first step of the ladder and they start to help. But as I said, it doesn’t prevent the relapse. So we usually see people once they’ve relapsed and they’re in pain again.
It’s our job to take their diagnosis, come up with our own if we think it is necessary and building that treatment program with our own expertise and our own time to be able to create a long-lasting change.
If you do feel that you have seen an NHS physio and have relapsed, then please, it’s not their fault. Come and see us. We can try and help as best as we can if there is something that we can do and then get you the care that you need in order to make a long-lasting change.
Offer: Book a free consultation with West Chiropractic >
