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I regard myself as a generalist Podiatry private practitioner. I am self- employed and I have been since 1996. My practice is based on a busy road in a village called Mapplewell. There are three fully equipped surgeries on the premises.
An important role as an employer and the owner of the practice is to ensure the business remains at the highest standards of patient care. I employ 2 girls Lauren Sykes and Grace Hemingway to help with the administration duties, Lauren Sykes is currently training to become a Podiatrist at the University of Huddersfield and Grace Hemingway is currently doing her G.C.S.Es.
The majority of the patients I treat are self-referred and I have to be prepared to treat podiatry problems or recognise the need for referral, if out of my scope of practice. I also treat patients who are referred from local general medical practitioners, and other Podiatrists for nail surgery or biomechanical assessments.
I have close contacts with the colleagues who provide more specialised services in the NHS and I refer patients to them as necessary. I regard communication between professionals as being very important, in that it can improve the patient pathway greatly i.e. tissue viability nurses.
My knowledge base is broad and is based on extensive experience and Continued Professional Development. I am also annotated on the HPC register as being competent in the use of local anaesthetics.
I do have an interest in orthotic devices of a particular type that I find of value and of benefit to a number of my patients. I have developed what I regard as a specialised expertise in the use of off the shelve and custom made devices.
I do not anticipate my future patient caseload will change very much from the profile I am accustomed to treating, although with verrucae treatments and nail care no longer being provided by the NHS, these types of treatments do fall to private sector. I currently treat with chemical, liquid nitrogen and laser therapy for verrucae treatment.
My CPD activities are a mixture of learning activities relevant to my current and future practice. This is demonstrated by the wide range of CPD activity listed below. The reason for the wide choice of learning activity is that I am a generalist practitioner treating patients with a wide range of conditions.
My professions development has therefore concentrated on the following activity over the past years.
· Attending annual life support training, analphylaxis and gas and air.
· Local anaesthesia update course.
· Pharmacology update course.
· Tissue Viability.
· Quadiastep orthotics by Taylor Made.
· Pebble Pad.
· Cad Cam Bespoke Orthotics.
· Sandpiper Comfort shows for problem Feet.
· Hyperhidrosis.
· Dermatology lower limb/Verruca Therapy.
· Peripheral Arterial Disease.
· Reading professional journals and completing the learning outcome.
Pull out section of the CPD enclosures on “podiatry now”.
· Network with colleagues to discuss clinical issues.
· Mentoring younger colleagues in my practice.
I am the union learning rep for south Yorkshire Branch in which I arrange courses for fellow Podiatrists to update their knowledge in key areas |