PRIYA BHALEKAR

• Autonomous clinical practitioner working in NHS GP practices.
• Advanced assessment, diagnosis, and managing musculoskeletal (MSK) problems and undifferentiated conditions.
• Requesting investigations where appropriate (bloods and imaging) and referring to onward specialists or physiotherapy services depending on the clinical diagnosis.
• Working in an MDT to help support GP workload.
• Helping train medical students for King’s College London.
• Conducting Service Improvement Projects.
• Participating in Significant Event Analysis.

• Assessment and rehabilitation for private insurance, medicolegal cases and NHS patients.
• At Ascenti I had the opportunity to work with different athletes of various levels, including trapeze artists, pole dancers and runners.
• Alongside seeing sporting injuries, I gained experience in assessing and managing a wider range of orthopaedic and MSK injuries.
• Working in the clinical setting has further enhanced my time management skills and, in turn focused my examination and treatment based on each case as well as the patients’ ideas, expectations, and concerns.
• I also did virtual clinics for BUPA as a telephone triage physiotherapist. This has helped me to strengthen my subjective assessment and to come up with creative ideas for objective assessments.
• As a part of triage, I must decide if the patient should be referred to a physio, chiro, or osteopath or needs onward referral to a consultant, podiatrist or even A&E urgent referral.
• As a senior physiotherapist, I had the opportunity to guide junior physiotherapists with complex cases.

• Manage the injuries for U9 – U16.
• Manage cover for U9 – U16 games.
• Manage the casual staff for training and games and provide CPD sessions for their development.
• Maintain medical records for all the injured players on PMA.
• Update the coaching staff about the player’s availability for the games.
• Organise the FA-funded Cardiac screenings for all the U15 players.
• Plan the pre-season screening for all the FP and YDP players.
• During my time as an academy physiotherapist, I also had the opportunity to work with the PDP players and staff.
• Due to staffing issues, I am currently also making rehab plans for U18 and U23 injured players by liaising with the PDP strength & conditioning coach and sports scientist and covering the U18 games and U23 cup games.
• Assist in U18 and U23 pre-season screening.
• Organised cardiac screenings for first-year scholars.
• Manage referrals to the specialist for complex injuries with the help of an Academy doctor.
• Communicate with the medical team when the players are on international duty or loan.
• Assist the academy doctor in sorting and ordering necessary medical equipment.

• Helping swimmers with their injuries.

• Assisting in the Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine Department.

affiliated by MUHS, India