Specialities

Our practice has developed beyond this and now involves a wide range of carefully selected and integrated disciplines. Practitioners working and communicating together ensure that your needs are properly considered and met by the most appropriate practitioner.

Specialities currently available include:-

Osteopathy
Physiotherapy
Spinal Physician
X-ray and Imaging Services
Chiropody/Podiatry
Health Appraisal and Management
Occupational Health Services
Personal Trainer

As well as in-house specialities we are able to arrange referrals to healthcare practitioners well known to us but external to our practice

What is Osteopathy?

Information regarding our Specialities

Osteopathy is a way of treating damaged parts of the body such as muscles, ligaments, nerves and joints. When the body is balanced and efficient it will function with the minimum of wear, stress and energy and therefore reduced pain and disability. It is the aim of osteopaths to achieve the best possible balance and most of our work is carried out using our hands. A wide variety of treatment techniques are employed. They vary according to the age, physique and nature of the problem for each patient. Methods range from soft tissue ‘massage’ techniques to muscles and ligaments, passive stretching and traction to joints as well as manipulative separation techniques (which patients often feel as a click) to improve joint mobility.

Today there are around 3,000 osteopaths in the UK performing over 6 million patient consultations per year.

Musculoskeletal and Spinal Physician - Dr Simon Harley MBBS MRCGP Dip MS Med

‘Many soft tissue, joint and spinal problems can be treated quickly and cost-effectively by a musculoskeletal physician who supplements the assessment and ‘hands-on’ treatment of the osteopath.’

The musculoskeletal and spinal physician is important to any multi-disciplinary team for his skills lie between those of an osteopath or physiotherapist on the one hand and the orthopaedic surgeon on the other. Dr Simon Harley has been involved in the Ipswich Hospital NHS Spinal Clinic for 9 years. He is committed to the development of multidisciplinary care and holds a postgraduate diploma in musculoskeletal medicine.

His skills include spinal assessment, interpretation of X-rays and MRI scans, and medical assessment. Treatment such as dry-needling, acupuncture and epidural and local cortisone injections are offered. Dr Harley is skilled in medico-legal reporting.

Physiotherapy – Marc Rapkin

Marc Rapkin has more than 10 years experience as a Chartered Physiotherapist in practice, as well as his teaching experience in Physiotherapy Schools.

He uses physiotherapy in conditions such as:

· Recurrent and chronic spinal pain
· Whiplash
· VDU users postural strain and repetitive strain injury
· Sports rehabilitation
· Postural stabilisation after childbirth
· Post surgical rehabilitation
· Degenerative Conditions

Marc Rapkin aims to assess your movement and strength difficulties as well as identifying any imbalance in the way your body works. Difficulties often arise when poor postural habits, injury or surgery result in some muscles overworking whilst others become redundant. This imbalance can render patients liable to muscle, ligament and joint strain on a regular basis

Having identified the imbalance, our aim is to devise a personalised programme for re-educating your muscle system. To ensure you carry this through in the correct way and objectives are met we arrange appropriate follow-up.

Physiotherapists can offer group training sessions for VDU users, manual handling instruction to aid patients understanding of the mechanics of the body’s ‘dos and don’ts’ and postural education.

Health Appraisal and Management – Dr Simon Rudland

Our team consists of a medical doctor and occupational nurse specialists who can identify your particular health needs and create solutions.

Nutritional Medicine

The stress and strains of modern living makes huge demands on our bodies. Even with an excellent diet we can benefit from nutritional supplements, herbs and minerals, which when skilfully administered can influence our biological systems to restore and maintain health.

Time to be listened to, a wealth of traditional medical knowledge, enthusiasm and experience in nutrition: these are the three elements that enable us to create unique health solutions for you.

Who can be helped? Chronic muscle pain, stress related symptoms, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, acute and chronic sports injuries, peri-menstrual and menopausal symptoms…are just some of the conditions that have been helped by the our approach.

Personal Health Plans

You service your car regularly, what about your body, which is constantly exposed to the stresses and strains of modern life?

Personal Health Plans aim to assess your unique risk factors for ill health. Solutions will be created which reflect your individual health needs. They are not a thoughtless battery of expensive tests, but a plan specifically tailored to your individual requirements. We aim to work with you, making recommendations for you to implement, which are relevant to your life circumstances.

Whatever your age and whatever your health worries, we can help you to implement a plan which puts you in control of your well being.

Occupational Health

These are key risk areas that commonly lead to time out of the work place:

· Musculoskeletal problems, particularly back
· Heart disease
· Stress related illness

Sixteen and half million people have back pain each year. The days lost from work due to back pain have increased 10 fold since 1955 and continue to rise. Heart disease and stroke are the most common cause of death in the UK, but both can be prevented by life style changes, and medication. We are familiar with stress! In health care we recognise that the level of care we deliver to our patients declines as we become more stressed. Your customers may be getting a poor service for the same reason.

Chiropody/Podiatry –Suvanne Harding & Alison Pettican

Suvanne Harding and Alison Pettican both hold university degrees in Podiatric Medicine. In addition they have gained a wealth of experience from the National Health Service and private practice. They aim to be patient centred and approachable, providing the highest standards of chiropody/podiatry within a multidisciplinary setting.

Their practice includes routine chiropody, nail surgery and biomechanics including postural and gait analysis with the provision of insoles/orthoses where appropriate. For patients with debilitating systemic conditions eg Rheumatoid Arthritis, Diabetes accommodative insoles may be prescribed. Additionally we can assess for vascular and neurological complications at initial consultation.