Physio Appointment via phone call!

Manxman_in_exile

briskbeats said:

A GP wanted to see me face to face end of March as wanted to feel/physically examine a couple of issues.

Apart from nurses taking blood tests- got a GP phone call next Friday as my latest were abnormal. When I have looked onto Facebook groups of thyroid issues and searched these groups for the thing in my blood which is very high,there’s a very strong chance that I may have got  Hashimoto’s. Which needs attention immediately as without treatment, it will shorten my life 

Deleted_User said:

I saw a physio at my local NHS hospital together with 2 (TWO) orthopaedic surgeons for an assessment in early January (at the peak of the pandemic) - and was told to expect a follow up with the physio in 3 months - this never happened - and due to the hospital cancelling the physio appointment, I ended up at the bottom of the queue again !

I am unable to get a F2F appointment with my GP either and have seen no medical professionals for 18 months (apart from 2 covid jabs)

None of the above is acceptable really.

tooldle

sheramber said:

My GP referred to to ENT. 
I got a letter telling me they have no idea when I will be dealt with.

I was referred to ENT if Feb. My first appointment was in late April (face to face) and i now wait on an MRI. Things might move faster than you think, hopefully.

Manxman_in_exile

tooldle said:

sheramber said:

My GP referred to to ENT. 
I got a letter telling me they have no idea when I will be dealt with.

I was referred to ENT if Feb. My first appointment was in late April (face to face) and i now wait on an MRI. Things might move faster than you think, hopefully.

That is true.  In my case concerning my hand problem I was told "up to a year" for a first appointment.  I checked with the person who told me that she did mean "up to a year", and she confirmed that that was worst case.  It could always be sooner.

And, of course, I prefer them to give me a realistic worse case rather than an over-optimistic but inaccurate estimate.

tooldle

Its worth calling to find out where on the list you are and how your case has been graded i.e. routine, soon, urgent etc. 

sheramber

tooldle said:

sheramber said:

My GP referred to to ENT. 
I got a letter telling me they have no idea when I will be dealt with.

I was referred to ENT if Feb. My first appointment was in late April (face to face) and i now wait on an MRI. Things might move faster than you think, hopefully.

I was referred at  the end of February. Still waiting.

Manxman_in_exile

So far as my hand is concerned, I don't think it's got so far as getting onto the list yet.

Baxter100

ripplyuk said:

In my area, NHS physio is totally hands-off and has been for years now (long before Covid) so talking on the phone wouldn’t be any different. They just give you a printout of exercises for whichever part of the body you’re having problems with. There’s no touching at all. Apparently they have evidence that this is ‘just as effective’ as traditional physio. I disagree and so does my neurologist who recommended a private physio. Personally, I found YouTube more helpful than the NHS physio. 

100% this! There is so much excellent content on YouTube which I've used for diagnosis/rehab of various sporting injuries and strains.

Manxman_in_exile

Baxter100 said:

ripplyuk said:

In my area, NHS physio is totally hands-off and has been for years now (long before Covid) so talking on the phone wouldn’t be any different. They just give you a printout of exercises for whichever part of the body you’re having problems with. There’s no touching at all. Apparently they have evidence that this is ‘just as effective’ as traditional physio. I disagree and so does my neurologist who recommended a private physio. Personally, I found YouTube more helpful than the NHS physio. 

100% this! There is so much excellent content on YouTube which I've used for diagnosis/rehab of various sporting injuries and strains.

I do agree with you and ripplyuk that there is a lot of really good and helpful physio stuff on YouTube, but it can't become (or certainly shouldn't be allowed to become) a substitute for NHS provision.

I wouldn't usually criticise the NHS physio service, but if they aren't doing it face to face I don't see what good they can do

briskbeats

A colleague had surgery on her hand 3rd week Feb last year. She had cast removed the day before lockdown and she was given some exercise sheets in the post as would had first physio session a few days after cast removal. Her hand hasn't recovered well and plus she's not tech savvy made things worse.

Davesnave

Manxman_in_exile said:

Baxter100 said:

ripplyuk said:

In my area, NHS physio is totally hands-off and has been for years now (long before Covid) so talking on the phone wouldn’t be any different. They just give you a printout of exercises for whichever part of the body you’re having problems with. There’s no touching at all. Apparently they have evidence that this is ‘just as effective’ as traditional physio. I disagree and so does my neurologist who recommended a private physio. Personally, I found YouTube more helpful than the NHS physio. 

100% this! There is so much excellent content on YouTube which I've used for diagnosis/rehab of various sporting injuries and strains.

I do agree with you and ripplyuk that there is a lot of really good and helpful physio stuff on YouTube, but it can't become (or certainly shouldn't be allowed to become) a substitute for NHS provision.

I wouldn't usually criticise the NHS physio service, but if they aren't doing it face to face I don't see what good they can do

From experience, my OH has found some physios aren't immediately able to figure out problems correctly when they have the patient there in front of them, so what hope is there when they're at the end of a phone? It has always taken time till the practitioner has got into synch with her and they've worked-out a strategy.

Prior to Covid, things were progressing well with visits as necessary to our local hospital, but now there's just pills, with very obvious side-effects. It's containment, not the hoped-for long term recovery she'd hoped for. Whether that will ever be possible now is debatable, unless we go private. Fine perhaps for those who can pay, but the the NHS was created for people like us on fairly limited incomes.