Celebrating 30 years of fixing feet in Southam

Firstly, apologies that this blog is being uploaded a year late – it should have been added in 2023!

Back in 1993 I  started visiting a few patients in their homes around Southam to look after their feet as it was on my commuting route. At the time I was living in Woodford Halse and had a small private clinic there, and had just achieved promotion to NHS Diabetic Foot Specialist for South Warwickshire. I was responsible for running the Diabetic Foot Clinics at Warneford and Stratford Hospitals, and subsequently at Warwick Hospital. This involved busy clinics with long hours and so I decided to move closer, hence me ending up in Southam.

At the time there was a private chiropodist in the town, Mr Watts, who I never had the pleasure of meeting unfortunately. He was at the end of his career and I was near the beginning of mine at age 23, so I decided to also move my private clinic to Southam. The house I bought on School Street had a front room that was suitable for conversion to a clinic room, and patients would visit me there in evenings and weekends around my NHS work.

At that time, the word “Podiatry” was fairly unknown, but as I had studied Podiatric Medicine and was running intensive clinics for the NHS fixing feet rather than just palliating them, I decided I was going to promote Foot Specialist services locally rather than just Foot Care services. I had seen too many colleagues condemning their patients to a lifetime of approximately monthly “cut-and-come-again-chiropody” for problems that could be cured with the right care. So the approach I took with my patients then (and still do to this day) was to improve the condition of their feet to the best that they can be through intensive specialist treatment plans, education, and self-help. At the time I remember a colleague saying that I will never have a successful business if I keep fixing my patients so they don’t need to see me as much!

However my approach proved to be successful and patients were soon recommending me to others. Success meant that I could invest in more equipment to help more patients. After a couple of years I realised I needed a larger clinic and a receptionist, so I moved to where Attica party shop now is and where the Choc Box used to be. I called my clinic Health First (as I focussed on prioritising patients’ health & wellbeing), and at that time I also started a mail-order foot care products business (www.firstaidforfeet.co.uk) that is still going and to date has sold over 100,000 items. I continued to work for the NHS and moved from Diabetes Care to the Gait & Movement Analysis (GAMA) service at Royal Leamington Spa Rehabilitation Hospital. Unfortunately the GAMA service closed after 4 years and I was made redundant from the NHS, so I worked for a few years as Prison Podiatrist and I concentrated more on Health First. This went from strength to strength and so I bought premises for it at its current location on Daventry Street, which meant my clinic had only ever moved 50 metres each time in Southam.

This year is my 30th one of fixing feet in Southam. I have helped over 7700 private patients keep active and out of pain, with their feet in as good condition as possible. I have invested in my continued learning and the best available equipment to help my patients. Indeed we were the first Podiatry clinic in the UK to offer MLS Laser Therapy effective in helping a wide variety of conditions. Many patients have become friends, and I have been supported by some of the best people as members of my staff team. I am proud that my business model of fixing feet for the benefit of patients’ health & wellbeing is now becoming more commonplace throughout Podiatry clinics in the UK. I am a regular speaker at National conferences, and on International podcasts, which has led to me co-authoring a book that was published earlier this year (www.amazon.co.uk/Elevate-Marketing-Happiness-Strategies-Practice/dp/1739283112). To top it off, I have been invited to Australia this year to share my business approach with Podiatrists there.

So a big thank you to the people of Southam and surrounding area for welcoming me as your private Podiatrist (Foot Specialist) for 30 years, enabling me to help transform Podiatry throughout the UK and beyond, and for allowing me a fantastic life journey. I hope I have repaid you through my support of local events & activities, and through my passionate care for your foot-related problems, and my commitment to being there for you whenever you need me. I am proud that I have developed a clinic for you where we can confidently claim that “WE FIX THE FEET THAT OTHERS CAN’T FIX”.

The photo is from a small 30th get together with friends & a few patients at The Millstone Hare @ Dallas Burton Polo grounds in June 2023.

Jonathan Small, Lead Podiatrist, Health First Foot & Gait Clinic, Southam, 01926 811272

 

“Absolutely worth your weight in gold! A friendly, welcoming, highly knowledgeable specialised team – that truly do care for your feet!”         N.T, Flecknoe