We are inundated with choices in every area of life compared to previous generations. There are now thousands of electricity and gas tariffs and suppliers that you can compare on hundreds of comparison sites. There are almost as many choices of hot and cold beverage in your high street coffee shop. While choice and personalisation can feel like a nice thing it can also leave us feeling overwhelmed and even when we do make a choice we often end up wondering whether we’ve really made the best one anyway.
It’s difficult enough choosing a coffee let alone choosing a clinic or a healthcare professional to help you deal with a chronic health condition. If you have a chronic health problem (or problems) it’s likely that you’ve tried various different ways of tackling it – from seeing your GP or a specialist, to researching for yourself, self-help, or consulting other healthcare professionals. If all of these endeavours have not got to the bottom of your problem you’re likely to feel frustrated and disappointed at the waste of time, money, and hope – and the fact that you’re still suffering.
When you’re continuing to look for help and solutions it can be incredibly confusing. Even if we confine ourselves to back pain (approximately 1,110,000,000 Google results) the information and misinformation out there is truly mind-boggling. You want to make the best possible choices for you but how do you even begin to narrow down your options?
As a clinical team specialising in helping patients with chronic back pain we have some advice for you to consider when choosing (or not choosing) a clinic.
- Don’t choose a clinic or a clinician who can’t talk to you about and demonstrate the positive (and less positive) results that they have achieved with patients like you. By that I mean patients with very similar conditions to you. Back pain isn’t a condition, it’s a symptom. Back pain can have a myriad of causes. If someone simply says they ‘treat back pain’ they may not have the sufficient expertise to help with YOUR type of back pain.
- Don’t choose a clinic or clinician who can’t provide you with any patient testimonials or who nobody you know has ever had good results with. Check out their social media reviews or there are lots of social media forums (support groups for health conditions, local community groups etc. or just your friendship groups) where you can ask for recommendations or post about a clinic you’re thinking of visiting to see if anyone has any experience. Of course just because others have had good or bad experiences doesn’t automatically mean you will; but it can help to reassure you and make your choice easier.
- On the other hand don’t choose a clinic or clinician just because they helped your friend / auntie / brother-in-law’s half-sister. Their problems and needs might have been quite different than yours. Also speak to the clinic about your specific healthcare and personal needs to better establish if they are right for you.
- Don’t choose anything or anyone who claims a 100% success rate or to be able to treat every type of back pain. There is no clinical evidence of a single product or individual being able to demonstrate this kind of success.
- Don’t choose a clinic without speaking to their team and asking lots of questions. You need to feel comfortable with the personality or ‘vibe’ of the clinic as well as its clinical reputation. If you don’t feel that they ‘get’ you and that you can put your trust in them you are far less likely to achieve satisfactory results. Some clinics (like ours) are very happy to have you visit the clinic to speak to someone in the team and have a look round before you book an initial appointment. This is a good thing. Take advantage of it.
- Don’t choose a clinic just because it has a shiny website or marketing materials. While this can sometimes indicate that the clinic is successful and professional it can also indicate that they have focused more on brochureware than on patient care. Have a look for yourself at the premises – perhaps pop in and speak to the reception team prior to booking an appointment. This will give you a better sense of the real clinic.
- On the other hand don’t choose a clinic just because it’s cheap. It’s often the case that you get what you pay for. Even good clinics run offers from time to time but clinics that consistently charge under the market rate for a service might have to do so because they aren’t good enough to hold on to their new patients.
Of course there are lots of other factors that can come in to your choice of clinic. But we’ll leave it to 7 for now. After all, you already have more than enough choices to consider. Venti Soy Quadruple Shot Latte with No Foam anyone?
