What to expect

The first time you meet with me as a patient I will want to know about you as a person: whether you are right or left handed, what your occupation is and what your hobbies are. This is really important information for me to understand who you are as a person, what drives you, what your functional status is, and what activities we are aiming to get you back to.

I spend a lot of time getting to understand your symptoms and how they are affecting you, because this will influence the treatment we chose together. It also allows me to be specific about what the likely diagnosis is, so that you don’t get sent for unnecessary investigations. Early on in the course of a hand problem I like to work closely with hand therapists to make sure we chose the right treatment for you, and to help target your rehabilitation goals. For many conditions, especially arthritis, I see surgery as the last resort, and I will work hard to try and control your symptoms with splinting or injections before we start to discuss surgery.