How To Cure A Foot Problem
Delivery of safe & effective healthcare relies on clinical care pathways. By following these, then healthcare providers can ensure consistency of results for patients. At my clinic, we have developed such pathways to enable us to resolve even the most difficult or troublesome of foot-related problems. As an example, traditionally corns have been deemed as incurable requiring regular ongoing treatment with no hope of resolution (and many do still think that). I learnt in my early NHS days how these can be cured and ran specific NHS Podiatry clinics in the 1990s to cure the corns of South Warwickshire (as well as other foot conditions).
Health First Foot & Gait Clinic’s care pathways have come from extensive learning from medical / scientific publications, courses & conferences, as well as peer discussions & shared learning, and over 30 years of experience dealing with hundreds of thousands of feet. This allows us to make the bold claim in our tagline that “WE FIX THE FEET THAT OTHERS CAN’T FIX”.
Over the course of 2022, I will be sharing with you some of the clinical care pathways for common foot disorders to help you understand the treatment options and likely outcomes that are available to you if ever you develop a foot-related problem. We always try to educate and inform any patient who attends our clinic so that they are in possession of the full facts regarding their presenting condition(s). In so doing, they can be more engaged in their chosen treatment plan, and that ensures better results for them.
When a patient attends our clinic, we require information on their medical status / history, including previous traumas & operations, together with their current medication. Depending on their presenting foot / gait problem(s), this is then supplemented by indepth assessments to enable us to provide an accurate diagnosis and offer individualised treatment plans that are safe for them to follow and us to provide. These always include the option for the patient of “no treatment”, although we will make them aware of the potential effects of that choice, which can be detrimental or catastrophic in some cases.
We will also include treatment options that aren’t available at our clinic and refer them on to appropriate providers if they so wish. In our experience, this is not the usual approach for many of those who treat feet (whatever their professional title!). Instead they just share with patients only those treatment options that they themselves provide and therefore the patients don’t always achieve the best / quickest / safest outcomes. To find out more about this, please listen to this Podcast in the international Podiatry Legends series.
So look out for clinical care pathways coming up this year on the following conditions:
INGROWING TOENAILS
CORNS
FUNGAL INFECTIONS
DIABETIC FOOT ULCERS
Thank you for reading and I hope you find the information useful. If you require a Podiatry or Physiotherapy appointment, please call 01926 811272 or book online at www.healthfirstsoutham.co.uk/book-appointment
Jonathan Small, Lead Podiatrist, Health First Foot & Gait Clinic
“I am impressed by Jonathan Small. He is professional and knowledgeable but also friendly and approachable. I feel totally confident that I am being given the best and most comprehensive advice available.” C.P., Warwickshire