Wednesday October 16, 2019

ELITE PHYSIOTHERAPY PRACTICE OPENS FLAGSHIP CLINIC FOCUSING ON WELLBEING – AS GROWING OLDER POPULATION FUELS DRAMATIC GROWTH

· New Hands that Heal HQ based in former Montessori School building near Pocklington

· Featuring complementary services including fitness classes and injury rehabilitation facilities, as well as physiotherapy

· Expansion and diversification of traditional physiotherapy practice into holistic wellbeing centre fuelled by growing needs of an ageing population

Young East Yorkshire entrepreneur Lisa Wiles has launched a flagship new clinic delivering complementary services alongside traditional physiotherapy designed to boost clients’ overall movement and wellbeing.

Physiotherapist Lisa opened the pioneering practice in early October on the former Montessori School site near Pocklington. Her popular Hands that Heal business, which also has clinics in Cottingham and South Cave, has doubled in size over the past two years and needed larger premises to cope with demand. The new premises replace Hands That Heal’s previous rooms within Pocklington Rugby Club with larger, newly refurbished and more accessible facilities just off the main A1079 carriageway.

Lisa and her skilled team work with leading names from the world of sport, including Hull’s Olympic champion boxer Luke Campbell, international GB triathlete Isaac Hulse and Hull-based global squash ace Fiona Moverley.

But her fundamental passion is for supporting ordinary people to regain movement and overcome the problems they experience with issues associated with ageing, like chronic pain and low mobility.

Lisa, 32, said: “My business has really surged in recent years and I believe this is largely because of our growing elderly population. More and more people want professional help to overcome various physical problems, and there’s more focus now on remaining fit and healthy into old age with a ‘stay younger for longer’ attitude.”

Currently, there are nearly 12 million people aged 65 and above in the UK, and the 85-plus  age group is the fastest growing and set to double to 3.2 million by mid-2041 (Office for National Statistics 2018). The country’s decline in mortality rates and growth in life expectancy since the start of the 19^th century is remarkable, but it is also a well-known fact that ageing societies pose numerous challenges for health and social care systems (World Health Organisation 2018).

Lisa added: “As people are living longer, they have more potential to develop issues with movement, pain, falls and frailty. At the same time, they are keen to look after themselves because they aspire to live active lives for as long as they can.

“Whatever someone’s stage and motivation in life, at Hands That Heal we’re combining preventative, educational activities to help keep them injury-free, with fitness classes and specialist treatment to help sort out any problems. To this end, the new clinic will feature classes like balance and falls prevention, yoga, Pilates and fitness alongside physiotherapy treatments.”

Demand at the other end of the age spectrum also continues to grow. “We’re finding that the younger generation are becoming much more conscious of their health and being more active, fuelled by government efforts to improve awareness of the risks of things like diabetes and obesity,” Lisa added.

“In general, there’s a real movement towards people taking up fitness activities who might not have done so before, but the downside of this is that sometimes they don’t have a good enough understanding of how to exercise safely and this can result in them injuring themselves.”

The clinic, which opened on October 7, has a skilled team of physiotherapists, specialist sports masseurs and rehabilitation experts. The expansion follows the launch of the Cottingham Hands That Heal clinic; rooms at the prestigious Cave Castle Hotel, in South Cave; and a York clinic within the White Rose Clinic, Melrose Gate, which all opened in 2017.

As well as working with athletes, Lisa’s 10-strong team of highly skilled practitioners have worked in a range of healthcare settings, including the NHS, and can help patients with everything from chronic back pain to frequent headaches, work-related injury and post-surgery rehabilitation. They apply the same commitment to excellence to every client they work with.

Lisa hopes to use the new Pocklington site as a prototype for similar ‘wellness centres’ elsewhere in the region, and aims to double the size of her business again within the next five years.

She said: “I’m fortunate to have a loyal client base and a fantastic team who pride themselves on offering outstanding physiotherapy that genuinely changes people’s lives and – in the case of the many athletes we look after – helps them achieve truly amazing things and avoid injury when it really matters.

“Whatever our customers’ aims in life, whether it’s to lift up their grandchildren, run a marathon or win an Olympic title, we want to help ensure they are in the very best position possible to achieve them. We look at the end-to-end rehabilitation of the person, not just their condition.”

Lisa’s career took off after she joined the elite physiotherapy team at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Since then, she has carved out a successful niche, supporting the sports fraternity in achieving great things. This has included travelling the globe to support teams like the men’s and women’s GB wheelchair basketball and boxing in defending European and World titles.

Hands That Heal offers the full range of physiotherapy treatments, including specialist rehabilitation, sports massage, acupuncture, taping, ultrasound and women’s health-related treatments – as well as employee wellbeing support for businesses.

The team boast top industry qualifications and years of experience. Working with professional sportsmen and women means they are at the top of their game and can use their elite insight to offer the very latest and best physiotherapy treatments to everyone, of all ages, whatever their need.

More information about Hands That Heal and the work they do is available from their website, at www.handsthathealclinic.co.uk  

ENDS

Photos: Lisa Wiles; members of the Hands That Heal team

For more information, to arrange interviews, or to request larger or additional photographs, contact By Tracy Fletcher Limited PR via 07983 633385 or tracy@bytracyfletcher.com