July 2023 was a time to refect and celebrate the wonder of 30 years of Bridgeham Clinic.
On 23rd July 1993 Jeff Strutt opened the doors of Bridgeham Clinic at Bridgeham Grange (the family home) in Smallfeld, Surrey. Jeff specialised in soft tissue injuries as well as post-surgical lymphatic drainage. He was supported by his wife Rita, then working as a nurse practitioner educator at Surrey University.
Both sons, Trevor and Paul, joined the practice as qualified osteopaths in 1997, and 2000 respectively. Patients visiting back then will remember the green leather sofa in the small waiting room and no receptionist.
In 2001, Jo Ellery (soon to become Jo Strutt), joined the practice, bringing with her skills in Pilates exercises. Shortly after this Jo and Trevor, both quali?ed as Pilates rehabilitation, exercise practitioners, which complimented the work of the manual therapy harmoniously. Some patients may even remember the presence of a large Great Dane dog called Boomer, who would often frequent the treatment rooms and rehabilitation machine studio.
The founders, Jeff and Rita Strutt, both retired in 2003, by which time Paul Strutt was running a successful clinic in Dover. Trevor and Jo Strutt, then took on the directorship of the clinic, which moved to Ifeld in Crawley.
By this stage, the team had grown to have two Osteopaths, two Pilates teachers, a massage, therapist, and even now a receptionist! We had a website and could even take a payment by debit card.
Bridgeham Clinic at Ifeld grew and grew. We added more manual therapists and Pilates practitioners, and acupuncture too. Then we took the innovative step of adding a portacabin to act as a larger waiting room, turned the old waiting room into an additional treatment room, and welcomed Pauline in as our first ever Practice Manager. The digital side of things advanced so that we could now take and amend bookings online as well as sending out reminders for appointments via text or email. You could book an appointment, by going onto our new app at 3 am in the morning if you fancied!
And again, the patient list grew and grew, nearly every referral through personal recommendations from previous patients. So much so that we out grew the space at I?eld and looked for somewhere bigger to develop the multi-disciplinary clinic further.
On 5 January 2017, we opened the doors and welcomed patients to our current location in County Oak Way, on the Manor Royal business district.
There are 27 of us working from here now. 9 osteopaths, 5 Pilates practitioners, 3 massage therapists, an acupuncturist, a foot health practitioner, a nutritionist, a hypnotherapist, a counsellor, 2 practice managers, 3 receptionists and a partridge in a pear tree!
And continuing through this 30-year milestone, the theme still runs through that your healthcare is our top priority. We still love seeing patients face-to-face for hands-on practical effective treatment.
It is our reason for being. The reason why we get up in the morning and come to work with smiles on our faces.
Behind the scenes, we have also been developing treatment pathways, the Broken to Brilliant® pathway. We are researching and developing the Bridgeham Posture Test to be used in line with early MSK risk detection, online resource training for both patients and post graduate osteopaths, hosting a YouTube channel as a collection of free patient self-help rehabilitation exercises. Recently Jo has set up a separate Facebook group “Moving Marvellously for Life” to develop a community of support for people wishing to enjoy life, better with less aches, pains and restrictions.
Thank you for joining us on our Bridgeham journey. It has been an honour and a pleasure to serve the community for the last 30 years. We look forward to what the future brings for the next 30 and pray that as we slide down the banister of life, the splinters face in the right direction!
Trevor and Jo Strutt & all the team at Bridgeham.
https://www.bridgehamclinic.com/
Date Published: 28/07/2023