We’re so pleased to welcome our new clinic manager Veronica to the clinic. Veronica has taken on the unenviable task of bringing some order to our world and has already introduced systems that include SMS appointment reminders and keeping up to date with all your insurance issues. If you have any problems with appointments or any aspect of the clinic please contact Veronica at the usual clinic number: 01491 83 83 63 or email castleosteopathy@me.com

In an effort to offer further support to our patients, we can do a mini assessment for you. Simply have someone take a photograph of you from the side, sat at your desk, showing the screen, desk and you. We will then discuss your work station and any alterations we feel would help, linking this directly to your treatment. This will usually speed your recovery and improve your working comfort.

So bring in those pictures and see what we can do for you.

‘Consider offering a course of manual therapy, including spinal manipulation, comprising up to a maximum of nine sessions over a period of up to 12 weeks’.

Of course, this is then in the hands of local GPs and although some are aware of what osteopathy can offer their patients, some still view us with caution. Indeed, I am still concerned at the lack of awareness amongst some GPs of the areas we treat, the techniques we use and the level of training registered osteopaths receive. Having tried previously to inform local GPs of our services and relatively failed, I just hope that our patients positive feedback will, in time, sow the seeds of change. NICE comes in for a lot of flack but the latest guidance, covering a less contentious area than usually hits the press,  is based on a huge amount of research.

On the other hand, do we want to become part of the NHS? Maybe Groucho Marx had the right idea when he said, ‘I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member’.

Jon McSwiney