24 Mar 2021
"Being a Physio’s a great job. You’re helping people to help themselves in essence." Paul Timson, Physiotherapist
The private rehabilitation services offered by our expert panel of physiotherapists has always witnessed strong demand. Yet because of successive national lockdowns, we’ve acknowledged an even sharper uptick in client referrals seeking a more holistic-based programme of recovery.
Here to afford us greater insight into what their role as an expert panel member entails, Paul Timson, has kindly taken time out of their busy schedule/diary to afford us a better understanding of what they do.
What inspired you to become a physiotherapist? When and where did your interest in this clinical specialism stem from?
My journey into physiotherapy began mostly by accident. I was receiving treatment for a football injury which sparked my interest and coincided with me being made redundant from a long term position in the petro-chemical industry. It was an opportune moment in my life to retrain and do something that I was better suited to and I saw it as a pathway into professional sport, one of my life passions. Following an extended period in professional football I started to work purely in a musculoskeletal setting and the opportunity to work in this specialism made complete sense.
We would imagine being a physiotherapist gives you a great deal of job satisfaction. Not least because you must sometimes feel akin to being a miracle worker of sorts when patients start getting up to speed again thanks to your rehabilitation programme. Tell us about why you love being an expert panel member.
Being a Physio’s a great job. You’re helping people to help themselves in essence. I’m not sure about miracle workers but it’s a people role but also a very mixed role. We know fundamentally the body heals itself – but it does need a helping hand or two along the way sometimes. I think we’re also part educators, even counsellors and confidants. I guess the best part is the difference a successful outcome has on an individual’s life.
The holistic approach which lies at the heart of physiotherapy allows patients to be more directly involved in their own care, through exercise programmes. Do you believe that putting the power of recovery into a patient's own hands, so to speak motivates individuals more than reliance on surgery or prescribed medication to put them on the road to recovery?
I think everybody is completely different in this regard. The motivated individuals are always far easier to treat than the less motivated. Likewise the active individual that wants to help themselves and as you say take the power of recovery into their own hands is always far easier to treat than the more passive patient. I think the therapist will also have an influence on this. Though we’re all qualified in the same profession, treatment approaches can be vastly different between therapists. However the holistic approach is most definitely key and understanding the individual patient is important - what works for one will not always work for another.
Where once work-related injuries (which later required physiotherapy) might have centred around accidents, we would imagine in this day and age people who spend eight hours plus hunched over laptops and computers must account for a significant number of the referrals you've had to create physiotherapy programmes for?
That’s certainly the case and even more so during and possibly after the pandemic. Sedentary jobs bring their own issues which we’ve always looked to try and help with. We now have thousands of people not only doing sedentary jobs but additionally working on their kitchen table or sitting on their settee on a laptop for these extended working hours. This has certainly given us an increase in this type of problem.
How has your career benefited from becoming a member of the Speed Medical expert panel?
I think primarily the added exposure to be able to treat people from all parts of life and with a great variation of injury types. The work isn’t confined to specific industries or patient groups so it can be vary varied with that regard. Speed have given us a consistent and direct source of referrals with an obvious, straightforward and user friendly method of reporting. I think being a member of a panel of experts is beneficial for both parties and that healthy, supportive relationship should result in better outcomes and consistency for all concerned including most importantly the patients.
If you enjoyed getting to know a bit more about Paul Timson and times as a member of the expert panel, and you feel you’d like to explore the possibility of joining our team as a medical professional, then get in touch with us today. Contact our Expert Liaison team on expertliaisonteam@speedmedical.com.
