Our services
Our team of Chartered Physiotherapists offer assessment and treatment for a wide variety of conditions such as back and neck pain, sports injuries, post-surgical rehabilitation, arthritic conditions and general aches and pains.
Our Services:
General Outpatients.
Following a comprehensive initial assessment of your condition,
you may be offered a variety of treatments depending on the
clinical decision of the physiotherapist and your needs. These may
vary from -
- Home exercises
- One to one treatment
- Advice and education
- Hydrotherapy
- Acupuncture
- Injection therapy
- Supervised group exercise classes
Your Physiotherapist will monitor your progress and adapt your
rehabilitation programme as required to maximise your recovery.
Hand Therapy.
Our hand therapy team provides specialist care to patients with
conditions or injuries affecting their hands or wrists. We have
close links with General Practitioners and the orthopaedic, plastic
and rheumatology departments in order to provide the most
appropriate care at the right time.
The hand therapy department is run by 3 senior specialist
physiotherapists who are all registered with the British
Association of Hand Therapists (BAHT) and have qualifications to
inject obtained from a validated post-graduate institution. The
hand therapy team provides specialist treatment to all patients and
quick, easy access from both the Emergency Department and
orthopaedic clinics. Hand therapists and experienced assistants
provide advice and education to those with long term conditions and
play an important part in the management of early inflammatory
arthritis within the rheumatology department.
Exercise, splinting, wax treatment and task modification are all
examples of key tools used within the hand department. All
treatment modalities are selected for individuals based on detailed
assessments.
Physio-Direct.
Physio-Direct is a telephone service to provide early advice and
management for people with musculoskeletal problems. After seeing
your GP, they can recommend that you contact this service to help
with your symptoms.
The physiotherapist will then discuss with you the most
appropriate way of managing this problem. This may include one or
more of the following:
- Exercises and appropriate self-management advice
- For those problems which cannot be managed with advice and
exercises alone, physiotherapy will be arranged. All patients are
prioritised according to clinical need and appointments given
according to waiting times.
Physiotherapy Orthopaedic
Outpatients.
A selection of our highly experienced physiotherapists work
within the Orthopaedic Outpatients department alongside the
Surgical Consultants. This form of multidisciplinary working
enables patients who have suffered with an acute injury and require
Orthopaedic management to be assessed and treated without
delay. Following joint immobilization some patient maybe
fearful of movement, have restricted mobility pain and swelling. By
seeing you earlier within your management our team can advise you
appropriately, allay fears and begin your road to recovery.
Once assessed by one of our team and a treatment plan
established, you may continue further treatment within one of our
many clinical sites.
A&E Physiotherapy Service.
This service runs Monday - Friday and is overseen by experienced
physiotherapists with a specialist interest in acute injury
assessment and triage. The team works closely with the A+E
practitioners and also has access to orthopaedic consultants where
needed. This team manages a variety of soft tissue injuries and
minor fractures ideally within the first 2-3 weeks of injury. The
aim of the team is to get patients started with their
rehabilitation process immediately with correct acute injury
management, education and advice. By enabling early rehabilitation
it is hoped that we can assist patients safely back into their
daily routine and hobbies without the injuries becoming
persistent.
Spinal
Service.
The service offers an innovative pathway of care integrating
physiotherapy with orthopaedics, pain management, and in urgent
cases accident and emergency. You can be referred into the
spinal service from the GP and other hospital consultants. Routine
referrals made by the GP will be triaged by our physiotherapists.
You will normally undergo an initial assessment by an experienced
physiotherapist to assess where your care may be best managed.
Where necessary, your presentation will be discussed with a Spinal
Consultant to ensure the appropriate care is provided. The decision
is based on the available evidence, best practice guidelines,
agreements between the specialities involved and your individual
needs.
Many patients do not need to see a doctor. If necessary, the
physiotherapist is able to order further tests (e.g. x-rays or
scans) and quickly refer on to a specialist. This way you have your
test results when you see the specialist.
Hydrotherapy.
We are able to offer Hydrotherapy as part of our physiotherapy
service. It is run by experienced qualified physiotherapists with
an expertise in hydrotherapy care and is tailored for each
individual to get the most out of their time in the pool.
Hydrotherapy is the use of water in the treatment of different
conditions. You may be referred for hydrotherapy if your assessing
physiotherapist feels it is appropriate.
This treatment consists of supervised exercise in a small pool
with a therapist and three or four other patients. The water is
heated to about 34.5ºC. The warmth of the pool aids muscle
relaxation and is therefore a comfortable environment in which to
move. The buoyancy of the water reduces the load on joints and
therefore makes exercising easier than on land. We may use
equipment such as floats, flippers and paddles to help you to
strengthen your muscles.
You do not have to be able to swim to have hydrotherapy as the
pool is quite shallow and you can work at a depth with which you
are comfortable.
Following your course of Hydrotherapy, you will be referred back
to your original therapist and your physiotherapy will
continue.
Our Hydrotherapy service now runs from the Hamelin Trust
Hydrotherapy Centre, Sutton Rd, Rochford, SS4
1XS.
Injection Therapy.
As a modern Physiotherapy service we can now provide injection
therapy as part of your holistic management. Injections can
be given for a whole range of soft tissue or joint problems in
the upper and lower limbs. These are mainly inflammation of
tendons, ligaments and fat pads around the body that can cause pain
when injured or overused. When combined with exercise
prescription the therapeutic effect can be substantial.
To achieve competency in injection practice, all our injection
therapists are required to have post-graduate training in injection
therapy. This is obtained from a validated post-graduate
institution or the Association of Chartered Physiotherapist in
Orthopedics Medicine. We generally use a combination of
steroid and anaesthetic and the referring physiotherapist should
ask you a number of questions relating to these drugs to ascertain
their application suitability. You should be provided with a
patient information leaflet to explain about the injection process,
its therapeutic effect and potential side effects.
The main clinic is run at Southend University Hospital NHS Trust
Physiotherapy Department however we also have a clinic at The Tyrells Health
Centre, 39 Seamore Avenue, Benfleet, Essex, SS7 4EX.
Trauma Ambulatory Care Clinic
(TAC).
TAC clinic is for patients with a traumatic injury which has
caused a broken bone, ligament injury, muscle injury or soft-tissue
injury. Patients can be referred to TAC by A&E clinicans
following triage assessment. The TAC is an outpatient clinic,
located in Dowsett Ward (Pink Zone).
TAC is staffed by a highly-skilled multi-disciplinary team
consisting of a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Senior
Physiotherapist, Trauma Nurse and Plaster Technician. The
advantage of this is that all the patient's needs can be fulfilled
in one appointment, instead of multiple.
TAC has slots available throughout the day, allowing rapid
access for patients that need urgent care.
The benefits of TAC include:
- Early diagnosis by export clincians.
- Access to specialist investigations such as MRI scan as
appropriate.
- Specialist advice and treatment which can include:
-
- Surgery.
- Injections or aspirations.
- Physiotherapy.
- Walking or moblility aids.
- Plaster casts and specialist braces and support as
appropriate.
- Specialist advice.
- Access to comminunity services such as Occupational Therapy or
Falls Groups.
TAC has been shown to promote swifter recovery and quicker
return to function following traumatic musculo-skeletal
injuries.
Community Assessment and Treatment
Service (CATS).
CATS stands for Community Assessment and Treatment Service.
Essentially the CATS team will assess and then triage your
musculo-skeletal referral from the GP. This will make sure you are
booked into the right clinic to see the right specialist.
Common reasons for Musculo-skeletal referral:
- Pain including joints, back, sciatica etc.
- Arthritis.
- Ligament, muscle or tendon injuries.
- Pain control.
- Rhemuatological problems.
The benefits for you as a patient include:
- High quality care.
- You are seen in the right place first time.
- You receive an efficient and through assessment from a clinican
with expert knowledge of your problem.
- Any appropriate investigations can be carried out with expert
interpretation.
- You will receive appropriate care planning and treatment as
required.
- Multi-disciplinary links as appropriate between
Orthopaedic Surgeons, Rheumatologists, Pain Specialists and
Physiotherapist, to give you the best care possible.
- Less waiting time to receive an appointment as clinic slots are
used efficiently.
The overall aim of the CATS service is to achieve a high quality
service for all patients with musculo-skeletal problems. CATS
is not a face-to-face contact or treatment service.
Women's
Health.
Our specialist Women's Health physiotherapists offer a
comprehensive service to women during pregnancy and after
delivery. This includes self-referral to the outpatient
service for assessment and treatment of pregnancy related joint and
muscle problems. To self-refer please contact 01702
385244.
Women are routinely seen after delivery whilst on the ward
for post-natal advice. We have close links with the midwifery
team and are involved in community ante-natal classes. Before and
after major gynaecology and breast surgery, women are assessed
and given advice and exercises to aid recovery. They are also
encouraged to contact us for further treatment after discharge if
necessary.
The team is also experienced in treating continence problems
relating to both bladder and bowel, with self-referral being
available to this service.
Consultant
Physiotherapist.
Dr Billy Fashanu- Consultant
Physiotherapist
PhD (Health Sciences), MSc (Physiotherapy), BSc (Hon)
Physiotherapy, BSc (Physiology), Diploma (Injection Therapy), MCSP,
MHCPC
Billy is a Consultant Physiotherapist with experience in
managing general musculoskeletal conditions, exercise therapy,
musculoskeletal injections, and rehabilitation of rheumatological
conditions.
Billy has worked in the NHS for more than 28 years and came to
Southend as a team lead (Superintendent Physiotherapist) 21 years
ago. Up till then, he had worked at senior levels in most
specialities within physiotherapy.
Billy has ample experience as a clinician and clinical lead as
well as in post-graduate teaching, education, and research. He is
also an active member of several professional, university and local
groups including: Chartered Society of Physiotherapy Medicine
Management Committee (CSP); ACPOMIT - injection group; Trust
R&D group; CSP R&D committee; CSP consultant group; Essex
University post-graduate student committee; East of England AHP
forum; adviser PMR & NRAS group; Rehab performance group; and
Rehab / MSK Audit lead.
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