Kyle Lunn, Managing Director of Health at ClearCourse outlines the massive impact big tech solutions are playing in alleviating NHS pressures, and how this should go one step further to support the private musculoskeletal clinics that indirectly support the NHS.
In the UK right now, nearly 650,000 people are currently out of work due to musculoskeletal (MSK) problems.
That’s 650,000 people who can’t do the jobs they want to do, support their families, or live the lives they planned. This isn’t just a healthcare crisis, but an economic one.
The NHS is tackling this with a preventative approach to care, starting with the rollout of the WorkWell scheme and, more recently, a tech-enabled programme designed to help patients manage their conditions remotely and get back to work sooner.
The success of the programme demonstrates the importance of preventative care, with a 20 percent reduction in 18-week-plus community MSK waiting lists across the UK.
However, with an existing waiting list of 350,000, the NHS can’t address this crisis alone. To get Britain back to work, the government must also look to the private MSK sector – which already delivers a third of all physiotherapy – to accelerate efforts with tech-led interventions.
Technology plays a core role in scaling different types of MSK support across the country. Whether it’s connecting a patient to the right expert for treatment or facilitating remote care, digital solutions are needed to streamline patient pathways so a patient waiting three weeks can be seen in one.
When it comes to trialing and scaling solutions, the private sector has the advantage of being able to move faster than the public sector.
Private clinics can adopt new technology without the lengthy procurement cycles the NHS has to work through. That means they can integrate AI-driven triaging and automated workflows in weeks rather than years.
By working in tandem with the NHS, private providers can act as a fast-moving extension of national efforts to get people back to work.
Many clinics are adopting clinic management platforms to manage appointments, connect patients with the right specialists for their needs, and automate patient communications.
These features cut down on admin, free up clinicians’ time, and mean more patients can be seen – without increasing headcount costs. These are essential capabilities to help work through long NHS waiting lists.
As well as helping practitioners to treat more patients, digital solutions can help MSK clinics provide more tailored care. Modern integrated platforms make specialist care more scalable – particularly with hybrid care models that combine remote and in-person treatment options.
For example, for a patient with limited mobility who would prefer to receive treatment at home, an integrated platform can give them greater control over their treatment plan with personalised exercise data and remote monitoring.
That means treatment that fits around the patient’s lifestyle, which contributes to faster progress and a return to work.
Beyond hybrid care models, digital tools also help clinics personalise care based on preferences such as language, gender and practitioner specialism, ensuring that patients receive the best care for their needs.
By adopting the right tools to manage admin, clinics can focus more on patient care and scale their operations to help more people.
A great example of this is a Belfast-based MSK clinic we work with that achieved a 100 percent year-on-year increase in new patient bookings by adopting automation features.
The clinic implemented TM3’s online booking portal, empowering patients to manage and change appointments themselves. That gave significant time back to clinics, which was reinvested into reaching new patients.
Paired with marketing integrations, it enabled the clinic to significantly grow its operations and see more patients.
This example is just one clinic. Scale that across every private MSK clinic in the country, and the numbers add up quickly.
Solving the MSK crisis is essential to the UK’s general and economic health, and addressing workforce inactivity requires making use of every available resource.
Beyond NHS initiatives, the private sector has proven, practical technology that’s already helping MSK practitioners treat more patients faster and more effectively.
By empowering private clinics with technology, we can accelerate the successes we’ve already seen from government-led policies, help alleviate the strain on NHS waiting lists and make staying and returning to work a reality for hundreds of thousands of people.
The question for every private MSK clinic isn’t whether to adopt digital tools – it’s how quickly they can.
