How Long Would You Wait?

If you wake up in the morning with an acute spasm of pain across your low back, or you injure yourself doing some crazy sporting activity, you want it to be sorted out and you want it sorted out now, today. How long do you normally wait for an appointment with your GP?

By the time you get to see your GP the acute low back pain has settled in and you’ve been out of action for a while. Then don’t be surprised if after your wait for an appointment the response is a prescription for some pain killers and anti-inflammatory medication that’s a bit stronger than the stuff you can get in the chemist.

There is another option, you could give us a ring. Backs are what we’re good at. What’s more we will probably get you in to see us a lot quicker than trying to see your GP. We carried out an audit of new patients during June and it came up with some interesting figures:

Just over 30% of new patients got an appointment to see one of our osteopaths within 24 hours.

45% got an appointment within 48 hours.

85% of new patients were in to see one of us within a week.

Of course, not everyone who rings in to see us for the first time is in acute pain.  A large proportion of our patients have had a problem for a while before they finally get around to having things checked out. So in these cases it’s not a question of the first available appointment but more an appointment that’s convenient.

If the problem has been there for weeks or even months you may not be interested in the earliest possible appointment, it’s more a case of trying to schedule your appointment around work or family commitments. We offer evening and weekend appointments to help with this. You may also decide to wait a little longer to see one particular osteopath that has been suggested to you and at a time that works for you.

A high percentage of our patients are referred to us by a friend, colleague or family member, and most patients (just over 70% according to our audit) ask to see a specific osteopath when they ring in. About 90% get to see the osteopath they want. This again is a bit of a contrast to seeing the particular GP you want to see.

So if you’re in pain we’ll get you in quickly and if you’ve got a busy schedule we’re pretty flexible with regard to appointments times.