Third sector foot care providers

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All,
At the recent Annual Delegate Assembly of the Society of Chiropodists & Podiatrists concerns were expressed about the intrusion of Third Sector footcare providers into the marketplace.
There have been foot health practitioners creeping in via Age Concern that are not being policed and now the NHS is working hand in glove with other agencies to provide nail cutting services.
In the North West a Social Enterprise Group gained funding about a year ago from an NHS innovation fund for providing "social" nail care. In Cheshire something similar is happening in five Trust areas.
I understand that the going rate for the nail cutting services are £9.00 home visit and £6 clinic visit. The clinic" is usually a village hall or similar.
There is also one-of cost of a pair of nail clippers at £10 and the ongoing cost of a proprietary soaking solution.

It will not be long before these type of initiatives are rolled out all over the coountry and pods must be in a position to challenge these companies.

This is a battle we can't win on cost - nor should we try to - but there needs to be a concerted campaign to highlight the dangers of not using HPC rgistered practitioners.

There are many issues raised that are of concern to those in private practice, and I have listed some - not in any particular order.

1. As there are exclusions from these sevices eg; those clients who are Diabetic, on anticoagluant therapy, steroids etc. there is the danger that potential service users may withold information in order to gain eligibility.
2. As the persons actually doing the nail-cutting have little training, would they be able to recognise those conditions that needed treatment/investigation and refer on as needed ?
3.What care pathways are in place to ensure urgent conditions are treated swiftly?
4. The soaking sloution recommended by one organisation is a disinfectant that is not designed for "semicritical items" ie those that may come into contact with blood, bodily fluids or those that may accidentally pierce the skin.
5. These solutions come in containers with child-proof tops and needs to be diluted before use. If a eldery person cannot manage to use nail-clippers to cut their own toe-nails, one can only speculate how they would be able to open these bottles and cope with the exacting process of accurate dilution.

Private trainers of unregulated footcare practitioners make a great marketing play of the gap in social provision. However, it seems the perceived gap has rapidly been exploited/filled by organisations seeing a business opportunity.

Comments anyone?

CF

 

Hi Catfoot,

I'm sure we all share your worries. When you say that concern was expressed... who by? Shouldn't SoCaP (and IoCaP come to that) already be all over this anyway? Was there any mention of the HPC position? Perhaps time has finally arrived when we all get so fed up with this appalling state of political under representation that we collectively act to push for a separate Podiatrists Bill as the Osteopaths did for their profession?

After all, it seems that the simplest definition of a profession is that it is a group of qualified people that regulate themselves. Given what you've outlined we are sadly as far away from that as ever.

 

Hi Greg,
The concerns I mention were expressed by delegates at the SCP Annual Delegate Assembly.

The HPC position is that as long as these social nail-cutters don't call themselves "chiropodists" or "podiatrists" then no action can be taken. As we know, the HPC has no control over the unregulated sector.

The SCP is well aware of the problems and will support Members who have to compete in this way. However, if NHS Trusts don't want to liase with local SCP groups, there isn't a lot that can be done.
There seems to be great reluctance for the NHS to use the spare capacity in the regulated private sector. What is not mentioned is that many Social Enterprise Schemes are not charities, they are loosley disguised as "not for profit" organisations but still have directors, company secretaries et al on the payroll.

It therefore behoves SCP members to market themselves effectively and try to work in partnership with NHS Trusts. Guidance on how to achieve this can be obtained by the Committee of Private Practice at the SCP.

My post was to raise awareness about the situation and to urge all SCP members in PP to get themselves down to their local Branch or IPP group and start being pro-active.

I can't comment on the Institute's position on this, hopefully someone else will be able to give that information

Incidentally SCP prefer the use of the term "foot care" to "social care podiatry"

CF

 

Hi Catfoot,

Well done for bringing this issue to everyone's attention. Some locally organised Branch activity may well provoke a reaction. As this type of service falls under the banner of the social independent provider, it should surely come under the regulatory remit of the Care Quality Commission? Standards are stipulated on the DoH website with links to the various authorities who are responsible.

Perhaps if Branches requested a response from CQC regarding what health and legal safeguards were in place to prevent patients (clients?) from being at an increased risk, we could raise the level of debate from a more informed point of view?

 

Hi Greg,
You raise some good points.

I am pleased to see that one of these third sector providers in the North West has now removed the NHS logo from it's website, so it would appear that concerns are already been voiced about standards................?

Concerned cat