Are you looking for the best foot and ankle surgeon in London? This it is not an easy task. In this article we discuss ways in which you can enhance your search.
How to find best ankle surgeon in London
When it comes to undergoing surgery that’s going to last your lifetime, it’s important to make sure you select your surgeon based on their ability to do the best job for you. We recommend that you do your own homework in finding the most appropriate surgeon for you. Location is important, so if you live in London, you will want a London Foot and Ankle Surgeon but a search engine will typically produce thousands of results from typing in search terms like ankle surgeon London or London Foot and Ankle Surgeon, so this guide should provide some helpful tips to help find the best ankle surgeon for you.
Now, of course, personal recommendation by a friend or family member is a great way for you to find a good surgeon. But as you will see from this article, should only form part of your search.
Speak to your GP
In the UK, general practitioners or GP’s are the first port of call for any medical problem. In many cases, your GP will have looked after you or your family for a long time and they know you well.
All patients that have seen a specialist come back to the GP eventually. Therefore the GP tends to form their own mini TripAdvisor for health and are an excellent place to start.
If you are being referred on the NHS, you may have less choice as to whom you can see. This is largely because primary care Trusts now have contracts with certain hospital providers, and so you are likely to be referred within contract to your local hospital. There is however the NHS e-Referral Service, which replaced Choose and Book in June 2015 and gives you some choice as to whom you can see.
It is important to bear in mind that right now during a Coronavirus pandemic circumstances are anything but normal. Currently urgent cases are taking priority but if you are suffering from symptoms then your GP may refer you to a local musculoskeletal triage service. This is filter that helps reduce the number of referrals to specialists. This can be useful if you have a common minor ailment such as low back pain but the downside is that this process can delay referral in certain circumstances and so these may be some of the reasons you may choose to see a private specialist for an opinion but in many cases you may still require a GP referral.
Search the Internet
Internet searches are really helpful but people tend to use different search terms as mentioned above, so one patient may search for the best foot and ankle surgeon london, another may search for london foot and ankle surgeon and hence Google or other Search engines will present to you the results based on factors that may or may not matter to you. It is often really hard to differentiate between all the names that come up on the first page. A lot of the results will be adverts or paid ad words and so its important that you bear this in mind when reading what you find.
Reviews and credentials
Read the biography of the surgeon and also reviews by other patients. If you can find a video of the surgeon presenting some information to you then this is usually helpful because then you can see how they communicate, as this is likely to reflect how they will communicate to you. Chat rooms can be helpful, where patients make personal recommendations based on their own outcome. In addition, if there are several recommendations rather than just one, that is likely to be a more reliable source.
Read the surgeon’s biography. So you understand qualifications in orthopaedic surgery, surgeons should have a basic medical qualification such as MBBS, then an orthopaedic Board certification which is known as FRCS(Orth) or FRCS (Tr&Orth) in the United Kingdom. If a London foot and ankle surgeon does not have these basic qualifications, then they may not be medically qualified. Some surgeons may also have an MD, which in the UK is a higher research degree, as is a PhD. If you would like to search for a foot and ankle surgeon there is a nice search engine function through the British Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society (BOFAS).
You can also check a surgeon’s qualifications on the regulator of doctors, the General Medical Council’s (GMC) website.
Another good site is Doctify which has patient reviews and should be a great place for you to find the best ankle surgeon for you.
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