January 2022 – No physiotherapy in the clinic
Our physiotherapist has just started lecturing at Northampton University and is taking a bit of time away from Ashgrove to settle into his new job. As soon as he’s back with us we’ll up date this page. If you’re in pain or need rehab one of our osteopaths or sports injury specialists can probably help you. Book a free 20 minute consultation with us to find out, or just book in for treatment – our aim is always to stop your pain!
Have you been waiting for physiotherapy?
Should you be doing rehab exercises?
Do you need help with pain?
Physiotherapy is a science-based healthcare profession and takes a ‘whole person’ approach to health and wellbeing, which includes the patient’s general lifestyle. At the core is the patient’s involvement in their own care, through education, awareness, empowerment and participation in their treatment.
You can benefit from physiotherapy at any time in your life.
Physiotherapists help people affected by injury, illness or disability though movement and exercise, hands-on treatment, and education and advice.
Our physiotherapist, Pierre Bonnaud, is very experienced at working with chronic pain and providing rehabilitation both before and after surgery.
Don’t wait for rehab to come to you from nowhere. Get the exercises you need now; get better faster!
To find out the 3 common causes of neck pain and how to fix them, simply click the button below.
Get the GuideOn your first visit to us we’ll take your medical details. We need to know all aspects of your health. We will ask about your previous injuries, surgery, illnesses, and we will want to know if you’re taking any medication.
We will then ask you to perform a few simple movements so we can see what’s happening in the area that is injured, and in the areas around it.
Unless we need further information about your condition we would normally treat you on your first appointment.
You will normally be asked to undress to expose the injury so that we can assess what’s wrong, but if you don’t feel comfortable undressing, just tell us – we can work around that. We want you to enjoy your treatment, so tell us what we can do to make that happen.
Andy says: If you’re a bit nervous about coming why not book a Free Consultation first? Come and meet us – we won’t put any pressure on you to have treatment.
Once we’ve made a diagnosis, and we are satisfied that it is safe to treat you, we can use a variety of methods to fix your pain.
We will explain what we are doing throughout your treatment to ensure you are happy with what we are doing.
Decisions about treatment, here as in any other medical practice, are entirely yours. We will never use any technique or procedure on you without your consent; so you can ask questions at any time.
Most patients really enjoy treatment, have a look at our testimonials if you need reassurance.
Pierre says: It’s important for us to find out whether there was an underlying cause to your problem so we can treat that, as well as the injury.
It’s really helpful to us if we can see the area of the body that we are treating. Normally we ask patients to undress to their underwear, but if you want to wear a T-shirt and shorts, or if you just don’t want to get undressed, that’s fine with us.
And you can always bring pair of shorts and T-shirt with you to change into.
Ruth says: Ladies, please don’t wear sports bras – they cover your spine and we can’t see what’s going on! A strappy vest top is much better.
We are registered with almost all the private insurance companies.
If you’re not sure how to claim on your insurance please do call us in advance and we can talk you through the process.
The most important thing is that you need to check whether you need a GP referral before coming to us. Most insurance companies don’t require a GP referral, but some do.
Once you’ve got the Ok from your insurance company we ask that you pay us after each appointment and then claim the money back from your insurance company yourself.
Important: due to AXA and Bupa being rather dictatorial about physiotherapy and osteopathic treatment only our osteopath Jo Jones is registered with these two companies.
If you would like us to recommend an alternative insurance company please do talk to us when you come in for treatment.
Of course you can! We are very happy for you to have somebody in the treatment room with you. We are quite used to families coming together or parents bringing kids with them.
Incidentally, if we are treating children under the age of 16 we insist that a parent or guardian accompany them. We also ask that if you’re bringing any children under the age of 16 while you are being treated yourself that they join you in the treatment room and are not left to sit in the waiting room unaccompanied.
Your first appointment will be between 30 and 40 minutes. Follow-up appointments are about 20-30 minutes long.
No, you don’t need a referral unless you have private healthcare and your provider requires you to have a referral. Physiotherapists are trained to identify when a patient needs to be referred on to another healthcare professional. Similarly, GPs refer patients to physiotherapists where they believe treatment would be beneficial.
So you can call us any time, or book online, without having to wait for a GP appointment.
Although referral by a GP is not necessary, you are encouraged to keep your GP fully informed so that medical records are up-to-date.
If you have private medical insurance you need to check your cover as some companies specify that you have to have a GP referral.
Physiotherapy is a three year degree course. Physiotherapists are regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council.
After qualifying physiotherapists have to do 30 hours a year continued professional development. The owners of the Ashgrove Clinic, Claire Short and Steven Bruce, also run the Academy of Physical Medicine, which provides postgraduate training for osteopaths, physiotherapists and chiropractors around the world. This means that the practitioners in the clinic attend courses with some of the most famous consultants in the world. So you can be sure that our practitioners are staying up-to-date and improving their technique beyond the normal requirements.
The short answer to this question has two parts:
1. The important thing is that the person you see is registered and works in a way that suits you.
2. In the our clinic the big difference is that Pierre, our chartered physiotherapist, uses more coaching and rehab techniques than the osteopaths. The osteopaths tend to be more hands-on. Brooke Robinson, one of our osteopaths, is an unusual mix of the two having worked with the Northampton Saints and the WASPs.
The good news for you is that we only pick very knowledgeable practitioners to work at the clinic, and if we think a different therapy will be more effective we’ll recommend it.
We’ve got a blog post that goes into more detail about this:
Click Here.
If you’re not sure who to see, or who will fix you, just call us and book for a free 20 minute consultation – we’ll help you work out what should work for your specific problem.
The number of appointments you need depends on what’s wrong with you, the cause of the injury and how long you’ve had it. It also depends on what you want to achieve.
Some people come to us because they just want to get out of pain. Other people want to prevent the pain occurring again and want to find ways to maintain the mobility they have achieved through treatment.
Our aim is always to make the pain go away and stay away.
