You’ve been suffering with an injury and you’ve decided to seek treatment yourself.
How do you wade through the masses of companies on the internet who claim to cure you of everything along with sending you to the land of magical unicorns on a rainbow seahorse?
Getting to the top of Google’s first page is a bit like an auction and often whoever pays the most gets the elusive spot (although not always).
Check the register
The first place you should always be looking is the regulatory body for that profession. For most Allied Health Professionals the regulatory body is the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and for these professionals they MUST be registered to be able to practice.
You can check the register at https://www.hcpc-uk.org and search on the name of the professional, or their profession.
Professions covered by the HCPC:
- Arts Therapist
- Biomechanical Scientist
- Chiropodist/Podiatrist
- Clinical Scientist
- Dietician
- Hearing Aid Dispenser
- Occupational Therapist
- Operating Department Practitioner
- Orthoptist
- Paramedic
- Physiotherapist
- Practitioner Psychologist
- Prosthetist/Orthotist
- Radiographer
- Social Worker in England
- Speech and Language Therapist
All these titles are ‘Protected Titles’ so for anybody to use these terms to describe themselves is actually breaking the law if they are not registered.
Check Review Sites
There are countless ways for companies to collect reviews and a good company will realise the importance of collecting them.
Trustpilot is the one that most people have heard of (https://www.trustpilot.com) and the reviews on their site are pretty robust. However the cost of having even a basic page with Trustpilot is eye-wateringly high so a lot of small private practices are priced out of the market.
Another good company which is similar to Trustpilot is Proven Expert https://www.provenexpert.com/en-gb/. This one works in a similar way and is much more cost effective although the background workings are not quite so smooth so it is not always possible to automate review requests, meaning they often get missed leaving an empty review page.
A relatively new but extremely promising player is Doctify – a healthcare database allowing you to search for clinical services in any area and is powered by verified patient and peer reviews. https://www.doctify.co.uk In some cases you can also book an appointment directly through Doctify. The company are hoping to become the ‘Tripadvisor’ of healthcare. It is still early days and out of major towns and cities the services are a bit sketchy but the pricing for companies is very reasonable and is likely to expand very quickly in the near future.
Internet Search
Of course using Google to search for the company name directly should bring up lots of websites where the company is listed including their Google business listing. Here you will find a whole plethora of information about the company including reviews from external websites.
Social media – companies realise how important a presence on social media can be nowadays so checking out facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest, linkedin can give you an idea of what they are about. Facebook allows for reviews on a business page but beware that these are not verified so are easily faked.
Local facebook groups – many towns and cities in the UK have their own group to allow people to request information and recommend services. It’s always a good place to start as people are generally quite honest with their opinion whether they have had good or bad service. However, sometimes the information must be taken with a pinch of salt as there are many people who ‘like to help’ who will recommend a company even if they haven’t used them, but just because they know they exist.
Websites are a must for companies today so checking out their website is going to give you a good feel for the company. Look for an ‘about me’ page to find out about the staff working there, look for links to professional bodies, AND check those out, and generally just have a good nosy around. Use your instinct.
Give the clinic a call and ask questions. Ask HOW they can help you. Health professionals generally want to help people within their chosen specialisation and this often comes across in their telephone manner.
Once you arrive at your appointment you will usually be given some kind of consultation to assess your problem and treatment plans and goals will be discussed. Make sure you fully understand everything, including the cost, and if it doesn’t feel right, walk away. Pay for the consultation but you do not need to accept any treatment – it’s your body.
On the other hand, if you’ve received exceptional treatment, tell all! Not only are you helping the clinician and the clinic, you are also helping the next person in your shoes who is searching for the best in healthcare.
