Here at Drayton Medical Practice we have Thomas and Andrew as our First Contact Musculoskeletal Practitioners. Our aim from a musculoskeletal (MSK) perspective is to provide patients with an accurate diagnosis, education, and appropriate clinical expertise to either:
- Enable patients to self-manage their condition from a one-off assessment with an experienced practitioner.
- Request further investigation or management (imaging, bloods tests or onward specialist referral) where clinically appropriate and needed.
First Contact Musculoskeletal Practitioners are physiotherapists by background who have undertaken extended advanced training. They use their knowledge and expertise of how the body works and how it is affected by conditions of the musculoskeletal system (soft tissue, joints, nerves and bones) to implement management plans specific to each patient.
There are key differences in First Contact MSK versus traditional physiotherapy. This service is very much about placing an experienced MSK physiotherapists with advanced knowledge and skills who have undertaken extended training to be able to refer for imaging, refer to secondary care (e.g. orthopaedics or rheumatology), request blood tests, prescribe medication and/or administer corticosteroid joint injection therapies in-house. This allows us to efficiently assess and diagnose MSK complaints to help patients manage their condition/s at the first point of patient contact instead of needing to see another practitioner (GP for example) to then be referred to the appropriate service, which is not efficient.
Benefits to patients are:
- Quick access to a MSK expert for assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and advice.
- Prevention of short-term problems becoming long-term conditions.
- Improved patient experience by seeing a MSK specialist.
- A shorter pathway, so patients have fewer appointments to attend.
- Opportunities to gain lifestyle/physical activity advice.
How to book an appointment:
You can pre-book an appointment with a Musculoskeletal Practitioner any time by calling Reception on 01603 867532 – this can either be a telephone consultation or a face-to-face consultation.
Alternatively, please use the link below to send a message to Reception to enquire.