As I approach the tail end of my Musculo prac, I have now been exposed not only to patients who are new admissions, but also a number of patients who I have seen a number of times and as a result been able to monitor their improvement. This has provided me with an insight into the nature of the patients conditions, their response to treatment and also allowed me a better understanding of what intervention works and for what condition. It has made me appreciate how frustrating it must be for some of the patients who have waited over 8 weeks in order to receive treatment for an injury, and have had the carry on with the pain and associated painkillers for weeks, and then receive some sort of recovery in a short period of time. While the change would be great for the patient, one has reported that he was annoyed that it took 8 weeks to get treatment, as he felt that he had spent the last 8 weeks in pain unnecessarily. From that perspective he has lost 8 weeks through his pain limiting his activity. Admittedly this has been an unusual comment from the patients, and he has been the first and only to state such (he is also one of the more acute cases, and is quite young with previously high levels of activity). For many of the more chronic conditions, patients have been attending physiotherapy for months on end, and as a result this has not been much of an issue.
However, considering the patients comments about the length of time between injury and treatment, I have thought about possible alternatives to waiting. It would not have been possible to treat the patient much earlier for the clinic, as the physios already have an extensive list of patients, and I believe my patient would have had to wait longer if it had not been for me being on placement. I suppose the alternatives I could think of for the patient would have been consulting a private practice (not sure how that works with medicare/private health insurance). I am not sure what other options are available for patients who are on wait lists for OPpt, but I am aware that the wait of 8 weeks for a sports injury is not as bad as waiting 1 year for an appointment with an orthopaedic surgeon. I am aware of how and why a patient may be disgruntled at waiting 8 weeks for treatment, but I think it depends more on the patient and their outlook then any intervention by myself.
1 comment:
While I can appreciate the frustration of the patient I assume you explained to the patient that just because the recovery post treatment appears to have occured in a short period of time with physio treatment the 8 week wait was also part of the healing time (you did indicate that it was an acute injury) and the injury recovery time may not have been any quicker even if he had commenced physio earlier (just making a possible observation because I don't have enough information about the specifics of the injury). I think you are correct but unfortunately the only alternative to public wait times is private physio. I hope this option was at least offered to the patient at the time of the acute injury!!
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