The Nottingham Sports Injury Clinic.

The Nottingham Sports Injury Clinic stemmed from the enthusiasm and determination of the clinicians involved (one an orthopaedic physician and the other an orthopaedic surgeon) to offer a service to the sports injured of the Nottingham area. Nottingham has a high incidence of sports clubs and centres per unit of population and hence has a large number of athletes in need of attention. Though the professional sportsmen in the County have been catered for satisfactorily for some time, there has been an associated strong desire to be able to offer the amateur athlete a suitable service as none has existed at NHS level previously. The provision of Orthopaedic Surgical care in the County is excellent but because clinics are already swamped by patients needing orthopaedic opinions there has been no place for soft tissue clinics. Since the orthopaedic workload in the area is so high and the Trent Region funding already stretched to the limit it seemed inappropriate to attempt to divert currently available resources in a new direction; indeed the DHSS has gone on record as stating that the development of sports injury clinics is welcomed though local initiative is required and no new NHS money would be forthcoming. A concept therefore of an "NHS style" clinic was born using NHS premises and facilities though funded from outside the NHS. A number of requirements for a properly designed functioning clinic were identified and have been met.