"'Look! No Hands!' Physiotherapy"

My partner and I had separate referrals to the physio unit at Blackpool Victoria Hospital this spring.

Our experiences are identical: one 'assessment' appointment, where a general medical history was taken and the problem briefly discussed. The physio then ran off a print-out of a set of exercises and showed us how to do them (both of us were very skeptical, as the exercises seemed to bear little relation to the problems we had).

Session 2 - ten minute session asking how we were doing with the exercises and answering any questions.

Session 3 - less than 5 minutes, to be told "there is nothing more I can do for you so I am discharging you."

What a total waste of time. It seemed to us that even the physios looked guilty at providing such a shabby service. Worst of all, our respective GPs are fully aware of this apparent new 'hands off' policy and say there is nothing they can do about it.

Maybe with Clinical Commissioning they can take the contract away from the NHS. Numerous others have since told us they have experienced the same 'Look! No Hands! physiotherapy.