Recent figures (2001) indicate that manual handling causes 30% of work-related injuries reported each year.

This is not the complete picture because some work related injuries are never reported.

Injuries are costly an estimated £5 billion in lost productivity in British industry.

Physiomatters (London) Ltd provides comprehensive manual handing training and training for trainers programme and are also able to provide risk assessments for the workplace. On a daily basis we attend people with a variety of work related injuries in our clinics. We are therefore in an ideal position to have an in depth understanding of the nature of manual handling injuries and are able to marry theory with practice, tailoring manual handling policy to individual, departmental and industry specific situations that provide practical and effective solutions to manual handling problems.

We propose to build ongoing relationships with our clients to monitor the effectiveness of the manual handling procedures developed and co-ordinate in conjunction with Physiomatters.

• Initial consultation with management and occupational health to find out the type of manual handling activities required and the types and frequency of injuries being sustained by the work force.

• Visit the work place to observe layout and manual handling practices being employed.

• Review of existing manual handling policies and techniques in use.

• Assessments of strengths and weaknesses of existing policies in the light of HSE regulations and injuries being sustained.

• Development of manual handling policy and training programme to ensure that procedures comply with current regulations and address weaknesses identifies above.

• Implementation of manual handling policy, procedures and training.

• Set up system of audit to monitor effectiveness of training and identify any outstanding weaknesses that may require fine-tuning of manual handling policy and training.

Physiomatters (London) Ltd has put together a programme addressing the needs of the long term injured combining physiotherapy, rehabilitation, life coaching and nutrition. Based on our extensive work in the treatment of long-term sport injuries we have devised a programme called FIT FOR WORK.

Aimed at health companies and large corporate clients we aim to find a solution where others have been unable to make progress.

There are certain patients that have problems recovering from long-term injury (medical operations, road traffic accidents, pre-existing condition etc). There are sometime barriers to patient’s recovery, mental barriers caused by the trauma of the accident, physical barriers caused by the pain they are suffering. Physical barriers and mental barriers to recovery can also be exacerbated by poor diet and nutrition.

We make an assessment of the patient’s condition with input from all the clinician taking into account previous history and treatments and devise a programme based around their perceived needs. An example programme would be tailor-made for individual patient but a sample treatment programme would be as follows:

8 physiotherapy sessions

10 rehabilitation sessions

5 life-coaching sessions

3 nutritional sessions

By combining the various disciplines the patient is give the maximum possibilities for recovery. At the end of the treatment a full report and analysis is produced a sent to the client and the patients.

Contact the Physiomatters Redbridge clinic and learn more about our new programme.