Hand & Wrist Clinic

A specialisation in musculoskeletal physiotherapy that focuses on the rehabilitation of the hand and upper limb. This routinely involves assessment and clinical diagnosis of hand and wrist pain and can involve exercise prescription, splinting, ergonomic advice, preventative care, advice to aid activities of daily living and also post surgical wound care and scar management.

In Hand Therapy we see a large variety of conditions. We often see patients after a hand or wrist operation or after trauma such as a broken bone in the hand or wrist. We also see and help diagnose non-traumatic pain including various types of mechanical wrist pain or overuse pain such as Dequervains Syndrome, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome or work related repetitive strain.

Hand clinics have specialised facilities to allow custom made thermoplastic splinting, wound care and scar management dressings, and hand specific rehabilitation aids.

Hand physiotherapists specialise after they’ve already qualified as a physiotherapist. We complete specific training and upskill. . This may involve courses and accumulative clinical experience with mentoring.

Skiers thumb, boxers fractures, wrist fractures, wrist sprains, finger hyperextension injuries, musicians overuse injuries, work related overuse injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome or ganglions.

Yes, there are lots of specific exercises we can prescribe to help strengthen your hand muscles. We can also use splinting to help pain management, and can educate you on adjustments you can make to reduce the pain.

We can assess your upper limb to make sure the diagnosis is correct, and if so provide you with education to reduce your symptoms, along with splinting and exercises.

Yes we can provide exercises, activity modification and manual soft tissue release to help. This could also be done alongside shockwave therapy if it’s appropriate.

We will first assess your wrist and hand, and discuss your activities, to work out what is likely causing the pain. We can then look at exercises and lifestyle or workplace adaptations. We may also look at getting you globally stronger with our rehab Physio’s to offload the affected joint.

This will depend if you are attending for your pain to be assessed and diagnosed, or if you are attending with a trauma or surgical aftercare following a consultant appointment.

For an assessment of pain we would have a thorough history about your condition, and physically assess your hand and wrist including palpation, special testing and strength testing. We will then start treatment based on our findings.

If you are coming in post trauma or surgery, we will find out more about the dates of incident or surgery, then remove any temporary casting, complete wound care if required and fabricate a custom made thermoplastic splint if this is indicated. We will then teach you how to manage swelling and create an individual exercise programme to exercise the hand safely.

Depending on what we are treating you for we may prescribe movement, stretches, strengthening of your fingers and thumb using putty or elastic bands, or we might use weights or theraband for your wrist and upper limb.

We will always have a 1 hour session initially, then follow up can be 30 mins or 1 hour depending on how much time we need.

If you are attending for trauma or post surgery we will likely see you 1-2 times per week for the first few weeks. Other conditions we would decide together based on your presentation and needs – It could be weekly or fortnightly.

This would depend on the condition. We can sometimes make changes in movement and stiffness within the session, however pain based on something repetitive may take longer as you adjust to physical changes you are making and gradually increase loaded exercises.

You will be expected to do a home exercise programme which we would provide during the session.

Hand therapists who are a member of the British Association of Hand Therapists can be found through their website. However it is not essential to be a member of this to treat the hand and wrist, so it may just be through an online search, or though word of mouth.

The session costs in the range of £155-£180 for an initial assessment, and £107-£120 for follow up based on experience of the clinician. Anything provided in the session is not part of the cost of the appointment such as splints and putty

Most major insurance companies cover the cost of the appointment with the exception of Vitality and IRPS who will contribute to your session costs but will not cover the full cost. Anything extra provided in the session will be charged as extra as insurance companies do not cover these costs, such as splints and putty.

Doing strengthening exercises for your hand and wrist regularly to keep it strong and stable will be useful. Also being aware of what position your wrist is in during day to day activities to make sure you are not putting unequal strain on one area of your wrist. At work, taking regular breaks and having a good workstation set up should reduce your risk of developing pain.

If you are worried you have broken something through trauma or impact, seeing a Hand consultant would be recommended as a first step. If you are unsure, we can assess, and refer you to a specialist doctor if it is appropriate.