After reading a post on http://nhsosteopathy.co.uk/ by Matthew Rodgers who seemed interested in encouraging others to get involved, I contacted him to see if it would be possible to arrange a clinic visit or to have a chat about how things work for him.
At the moment, the potential visit plan is still ongoing, as it requires a full CRB check, so I am intending to double it up with the GOsC required one and then go from there.
However, he was kind enough to let me grill him about his work over the phone instead!
It sounds as though he works in a fantastic setting, in a multidisciplinary clinic alongside physio's, psychological councilors, orthopods and pain specialists. They treat anyone who is referred to the clinic as a whole by GPs in the area. Although they would like to be able to self-refer, this would cause problems with the way the funding is distributed, so currently the GPs remain the gatekeepers for care.
The patient population is all ages from sixteen and up, and from all walks of life (from people with no fixed abode to those who injured their backs cleaning the fifth floor staircase of their enormous townhouse). This can lead to problems, particularly with trying to contact patients who are uncontactable!
Cases are divided within the clinic based on practitioners areas of speciality, not so much by their origin in terms of training. It is a true multidisciplinary clinic where they train together and offer advice on best practice.
I was particularly interested in the scope for research with the inevitable paperwork that must follow from working in the NHS environment, especially in terms of cost-efficacy of osteopathy. They report largely on PREMs and PROMs (patient reported Experience and Outcome measures), considering the concept of number to treat - the amount of patients required to be treated to reach a 50% improvement.
Sadly, however, all the statistics that are considered currently are for the multidisciplinary MSk outpatients department as a whole, with less reporting on the effect of one intervention modality over another. This is something that they are considering improving on in the future, however!
A very interesting chat, and I am greatly looking forward to (paperwork permitting) going for a visit in the future.
I would definitely like to practice at least in part in the NHS, and the possibilities for research in such an environment are fantastic! If nothing else, the PREMs and PROMs are things to consider for starting my own practice database!
At the moment, the potential visit plan is still ongoing, as it requires a full CRB check, so I am intending to double it up with the GOsC required one and then go from there.
However, he was kind enough to let me grill him about his work over the phone instead!
It sounds as though he works in a fantastic setting, in a multidisciplinary clinic alongside physio's, psychological councilors, orthopods and pain specialists. They treat anyone who is referred to the clinic as a whole by GPs in the area. Although they would like to be able to self-refer, this would cause problems with the way the funding is distributed, so currently the GPs remain the gatekeepers for care.
The patient population is all ages from sixteen and up, and from all walks of life (from people with no fixed abode to those who injured their backs cleaning the fifth floor staircase of their enormous townhouse). This can lead to problems, particularly with trying to contact patients who are uncontactable!
Cases are divided within the clinic based on practitioners areas of speciality, not so much by their origin in terms of training. It is a true multidisciplinary clinic where they train together and offer advice on best practice.
I was particularly interested in the scope for research with the inevitable paperwork that must follow from working in the NHS environment, especially in terms of cost-efficacy of osteopathy. They report largely on PREMs and PROMs (patient reported Experience and Outcome measures), considering the concept of number to treat - the amount of patients required to be treated to reach a 50% improvement.
Sadly, however, all the statistics that are considered currently are for the multidisciplinary MSk outpatients department as a whole, with less reporting on the effect of one intervention modality over another. This is something that they are considering improving on in the future, however!
A very interesting chat, and I am greatly looking forward to (paperwork permitting) going for a visit in the future.
I would definitely like to practice at least in part in the NHS, and the possibilities for research in such an environment are fantastic! If nothing else, the PREMs and PROMs are things to consider for starting my own practice database!