Scotland’s leading private day-case hospital, The Edinburgh Clinic, today (Wednesday 17 January) unveiled the country’s first fully integrated orthopaedic, sports medicine and injury rehabilitation service designed to bring the same high performance level care normally associated with sports athletes to the wider public.

The New Year brings a raft of self-improvement goals and resolutions with many thousands embarking on fitness and diet plans to get back in shape.  Whilst exercise is one of the best ways to keep fit and healthy, painful joints, knees, muscles, bones or pre-existing debilitating problems including sports injury, overuse or general wear and tear can be a real issue. Making the right diagnosis is key to getting the right treatment.  
The launch of Joint Solutions, which is a one-stop-shop service, is ultimately aimed at helping people stay active and healthy by managing injury as well as offering bespoke fitness and health programmes. Pain management and injury rehabilitation are often classed as non-urgent with patients facing long waiting times to be seen. These can be extremely debilitating with long waiting times to be seen.  However, this new service offers specialist expert advice from highly experienced senior doctors and top physiotherapists and access to state-of-the-art medical technology.  Joint Solutions work with the patient to identify their health or medical problem and to plan their treatment, whether this is surgery, injections, physiotherapy or a tailored exercise programme.

The founding team includes Dr Carrie McCrea, a highly experienced Sports and Exercise Physician, Mr Tim White MD FRCS, a leading Consultant Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgeon, Mr Sam Molyneux FRCS, MSC (Hons), BMedSCi (Hons), Specialist Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon and Louise Imrie, a specialist Sports Physiotherapist with previous experience of caring for Olympic level athletes, with other leading specialists also on board.

Joint Solutions offers patients the unique opportunity to undertake an initial 25-minute consultation and examination with either a sports physician or orthopaedic surgeon (or both), an MRI scan (if required) and follow up 15-minute appointment with the clinic’s specialists to discuss the diagnosis and treatment plan. All of this takes place in one appointment at the clinic’s hospital on 40 Colinton Road.

Commenting on the launch, Mr Tim White said:

“Physical inactivity and obesity are the largest morbidity factors today, yet you can add quality years to your life by making the right nutrition and exercise decisions. 
 
“For many people good exercise and nutrition aren’t always put into practice yet it’s important to consider your health inside and out.  We know that people are busy and time is valuable but we’re not looking at short term fixes with Joint Solutions, we’re committed to providing our patients with the right tools to help maximise health and performance with a holistic approach all under one roof. 

 “This knowledge based approach to health and injury management has often been something that only athletes could access. It’s a field we’ve all specialised in for many years so it was a natural progression for us to collaborate on Joint Solutions, which we believe is Scotland’s first and only fully integrated orthopaedic, sports medicine and injury rehabilitation service.“

The first patient to be treated by the team is Edinburgh-based Dental Surgeon Dr Willie Jack, aged 57 years old. An active cyclist, canoeist and rambler with properties in Edinburgh and Assynt, Dr Jack is an otherwise fit and healthy outdoor enthusiast bar who suffered with recurring pain from shoulder injuries incurred during years of playing rugby in his younger years.  Now semi-retired, Dr Jack was keen to continue to develop his outdoor sports interests. However, he knew he needed to be seen by a consultant but was reluctant to embark upon any surgical interventions whilst still practising as a dental surgeon. 

Commenting on his experience with the Joint Solutions team, Dr Jack said:

“My experience at The Edinburgh Clinic was painless and swift. I’d been carrying niggling shoulder injuries for a long time, years in fact. They’ve probably originated from rugby injuries sustained many years ago and frankly over time I’d learnt to live with them as a painful inconvenience. 
 
“Now that I’m semi-retired and spending more time in the outdoors, with a view to becoming even more active, I needed to sort it out once and for all. However, by upping my sports and outdoor activities, I was also running the risk of making the pain even worse and doing longer-term damage to my shoulder. 
 
“I contacted The Edinburgh Clinic and got an appointment straight away. I saw the Consultant Surgeon and had my shoulders MRI scanned right there and then. The Consultant had the results back within minutes of the scan being done.  I returned a couple of days later and was given a shoulder injection under ultrasound. It was that quick and easy, I was literally cycling a sportive in the Pyrenees a week later.
 
Dr Jack concluded:

“I can honestly say that I’ve never felt better. There’s a good chance that I’ll need surgery down the line but for the foreseeable future, I have some of the best clinical champions behind me who are proactively watching my back and keeping me active.”
 
An initial consultation with the Joint Solutions Clinic practitioners is priced from £545. For more information on opening hours and treatments or to book a consultation, please call The Edinburgh Clinic on 0131 447 2340 or visit www.edinburghclinic.com.

Notes to Editors: 
The Edinburgh Clinic is a private day-case hospital founded in 2008. Part of Aspen Healthcare, the clinic is located at 40 Colinton Road and offers fast access to appointments for out-patient consultation, on-site diagnostic imaging and day-case surgical treatment.  For more information, visit www.edinburghclinic.com  
 
Joint Solutions follow up treatment options (which are separate to the one-day appointment) can include:
 
Surgery

• Arthroscopic (keyhole)
• Soft tissue procedures
• Open (joint replacement)

Sports medicine treatment

• Exercise prescription

Injury assessment and management

• Injections, including steroids or hyaluronate joint lubricant
• Ultrasound or shock-wave treatment
• Health promotion
• DEXA scans
• PRP injections
• Female athlete assessments

Physiotherapy

• Full body assessment to identify predisposing factors
• Range of treatment techniques and modalities
• Pre +Post-operative rehabilitation
• Rehabilitation training and reconditioning
• Individualised exercise programmes
• Yoga-based rehabilitation

Consultants biographies:
Mr Tim White, Consultant Orthopaedic Trauma Surgeon: Tim is a Consultant Orthopaedic Trauma Surgeon specialising in acute injuries to joints, bones and muscles. He has been a Consultant at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh for ten years, and is head of the Trauma Service, responsible for the care of 6,000 in-patients and 35,000 out-patients a year, suffering from a range of injuries to the arms, legs, spine and pelvis. Tim runs the Acute Knee Injury Clinic at the Royal Infirmary, where, with one colleague he looks after all acute referrals from the Edinburgh region, as well as sub-specialist referrals from other Orthopaedic Consultants in the Lothians, the Borders, Fife, Perth and Dundee.  Tim regularly performs both arthroscopic (keyhole) and open surgery to treat injuries to cartilages, bone and ligaments.  He is a Fellow of the Faculty of Surgical Trainers at the Royal College of Surgeons and is the Director of several national and international courses, training other Consultants and junior Surgeons in orthopaedic and trauma surgery. Tim is also the author of numerous scientific papers, book chapters, and a best-selling text book on orthopaedic trauma.

Clinical interests: Joint, bone & muscle injuries; joint, bone & muscle pain; sports Injuries; orthopaedics and trauma.

Sam Molyneux, Consultant Orthopaedic Trauma Surgeon: Sam has been a Consultant at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh for four years. As part of his trauma work he deals with acute injuries to the upper limb (including shoulder, elbow and wrist and hand), the spine and lower limb (including pelvis, hip, knee, ankle and foot). He also leads a subspecialist hand and wrist clinic as well as an acute knee injury service at St John’s hospital in Livingstone. Sam also has a specific subspecialist interest in exertional compartment syndrome and exercise related pain and takes referrals for this from Orthopaedic Consultants all over South East Scotland. His Edinburgh Clinic work reflects this keen interest in maximising people’s function and getting them back to the activities they wish to enjoy.

Sam organises several local, national and international conferences and is the lead for orthopaedic training at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. He is also the Treasurer for ARTOF – the Association for the Rational Treatment of Fractures – a group of highly regarded international experts dedicated to identifying optimal therapeutic strategies for patients with injuries.
 
Clinical interests: Hand and wrist injury, pain or stiffness; Sports injury; Knee pain/injury; Exercise/activity related pain and exertional compartment syndrome plus general trauma
 
Dr Carrie McCrea, Sports Physician: Carrie completed her medical training at the University of Edinburgh in 2004 and worked locally in hospital posts before completing GP training. After working as a GP partner for a number of years she left to concentrate on working within Sports Medicine full time.

Carrie has experience of working with high performance sport through her roles as Team Doctor for Heart of Midlothian Football Club, Scotland Women’s Rugby, Scotland Hockey and Scottish Swimming and by providing medical cover at the SportScotland Institute of Sport and the Scottish Football Association. She was employed at Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games as a Venue Medical Manager and is heavily involved in developing services for mental health awareness and management in professional football most recently leading up Support in Sport in collaboration with the PFA and Hampden Sports Centre. She also works within the NHS as a musculoskeletal specialist, working alongside orthopaedic surgeons and other experts in the area. Carrie has a sporting background having competed nationally in hockey and believes regular activity is the key to physical and psychological wellbeing. Her work as medical advisor for Tribe yoga along with committed personal practice enables her to incorporate yoga principles into rehabilitation and management of patients.

Clinical interests: Exercise Prescription and Promotion, Injury management and prevention, Psychological Sports Medicine and Yoga Sports Medicine.

Louise Imrie, Specialist Sports Physiotherapist: Louise is a highly specialist Sports Physiotherapist who has worked for over 10 years full-time in High Performance Sport. She was part of the Team Scotland Medical Team at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and part of Team GB at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. Louise is currently lead physiotherapist for the British Swimming Open Water programme, and previously held the position of ‘Lead Physiotherapist for Aquatics’ at the Scottish Institute of Sport for 5 years. In addition, she has worked with the Scottish Hockey Union and worked full-time for the Scottish Rugby Union, with a number of international squads. Fundamental to Louise's approach as a physiotherapist are her attention to detail and full body approach.

She believes in taking a proactive approach to the body, health and well-being with the emphasis that prevention is better than cure. She strongly believes in the value of exercise programs and yoga to supplement everyday performance. Alongside, the role of physical activity for health and well-being, Louise is also a RYT 200-hour Yoga Teacher; she combines her knowledge and expertise of the body, injury, sport and performance to tailor yoga 1:1s to address individual needs and goals.

Clinical interests: Sport + Exercise Injuries; Musculoskeletal Injuries; Exercise Programs; Rehabilitation; Physical Activity + Exercise for Health + Well-being plus Yoga