1 Brightwell House , 40 Queens Road , Reading , RG1 4AU

Developments at Brightwell Clinic

Brightwell Clinic is a progressive podiatry practice always willing to look at new practices within the world of the treatment of the feet, including diagnostic and treatment options as well as pathways for treatment.

Since the practice was commenced in October 2005, we have introduced

  • FScan and OptoGait (as part of the process for prescribing orthotic devices)
  • Clearanail (as a means of treating fungal nails)
  • Swift (as an alternative treatment for verrucae)
  • Podium (as a diagnostic aid)
  • Cliniko Practice Management (to computerise information about treatments & booking)
  • On-line booking (to make it easier for patients to book appointments convenient for them)

Initial appointments

We have been looking at the cornerstone of all treatments and that is the initial appointment and the diagnosis of a patient’s lower limb complaint and the making of a treatment plan to seek to resolve such complaints.

We have decided to split the triaging of complaints into two broad types:

1. Complaints which are Musculo-skeletal in nature manifesting in pain in the foot, ankle, calf, knee, hip and lower back.

These primarily are concerned with the efficiency of the foot in motion.

2. Complaints which are often associated with the description “chiropody” which are all other conditions which Brightwell treats including nails, callus, corns, verrucae, in-growing toe nails and so on.

These are likely to be conditions which may require repeated appointments.

Most patients will be able themselves to appreciate into which of those two categories the problem with their feet falls and thus to select the appropriate treatment appointment.

The result is … we are passing on savings in some revised prices

Revised approach at Reading

Musculo-skeletal conditions

We start the process of evaluating the biomechanical issues with the feet, through listening to patient’s experience with the incidence of pain, the activity being undertaken, the footwear being worn. With the aid of FScan and OptoGait our podiatrists will be able to advise on what type of orthoses may address the gait issues. There will be a choice between the prescription of

existing manufactured devices (“off the shelf devices”)

with or without modification, such as heel raise, metatarsal dome, cut-out etc. However the life of off the shelf can be as short as one or two years.

or

casted custom orthoses

which are used because of their longevity and where patients need specific controls which are not readily achievable with off the shelf devices,

Benefits

  • It will mean that all patients coming with related muscular pain will have a first appointment concerned with evaluating the patients’ movement of the lower limbs on a treadmill with the resultant ability to give patients appropriate advice as to if, and how best, to prescribe orthotic devices
  • By making these changes we are eliminating the need for our existing “initial appointment” this saves our patients £65.00 and we have made other savings which reduces the costs of the casted customised orthotic devices. 
  • It will also avoid the need for the existing “initial appointment” in the case of “off the shelf” manufactured devices because the patients will have a full biomechanical assessment which may show that the “off the shelf” devices will be satisfactory and patients can then choose between the longevity of casted devices and the relatively short life span of “off the shelf devices”.

Chiropody appointments

Where an initial appointment for “chiropody” is selected this will largely follow the same approach as at present, where a diagnosis will be made and treatment plan decided upon. Any nail cutting, debriding of corns etc will be carried out. We are limiting the length of this appointment from 45 -60 mins to 45minutes.

Benefit

  • This will mean that the price of this appointment will not have to be increased at this time and we will absorb any standard cost increase of this appointment

BME and Nail Surgery Packages

Experience has shown that where we build in follow up/re-dressing appointments into our BME and Nail Surgery packages in a number of cases these have not been utilised by patients except perhaps in a limited number of cases where further refinements have been needed. This means we can reduce the number of follow up appointments and thus the cost of the package but in those complex cases any charge for further follow up appointments will in the main be offset by the savings in the cost of the treatment package.

SEE OUR REVISED TREATMENT PRICES (click here)

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