Member Article

Business in Sport Interview: Neeraj Nayyar, Managing Director at Physiotherapy Matters Ltd

In a Behind the Business piece, Bdaily talks to Neeraj Nayyar, Managing Director at Physiotherapy Matters Ltd.

Established nine years’ ago, Physiotherapy Matters has developed a specialty in proactive and collaborative Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy programmes to combat individual and Occupational Health needs including the treatment of neck pain, sports injuries, arthritis, whiplash, headaches and lower back pain.

Could you explain your key services?

“Physiotherapy Matters’ key service is musculoskeletal therapy which can be explained as looking after joints, ligaments, tendons, muscles and nerve problem relating to common problems such as neck and low back pain, sports injuries, repetitive strain injury and arthritis.

“We have a range of treatments available depending on the nature and cause of the injury or condition, from manual therapy and massage to soft tissue mobilisation – from acupuncture, rehabilitation programmes to injection therapy. We assess each client to plan a bespoke treatment programme to meet their expectations and needs.

“Musculoskeletal disorders have been the one of the leading causes of absenteeism in the UK for the past 5 years, and the UK has one of the highest rates in Europe. Our Occupational Health service therefore provides a great impact for businesses by carrying out treatment to get employees back to the workplace sooner or prevent them from taking absence.

“We also offer workplace assessments, proactive wellbeing programmes and educational presentations for managers. We look at the individual business and their prevalent causes of injury and illness and how to make alterations or introduce new initiatives to reduce the impact of these.

“The Office for National Statistics reports that around 31 million days of work are lost each year due to back, neck and muscle problems so businesses can feel a real impact from making small, targeted changes.”

What is your biggest achievement over the past 12 months?

“The last 12 months has seen us move into to our new head office and clinical premises at the Regent Centre in Gosforth. All in all it took around 18 months to source and build the clinic up from scratch as we were determined to find the very best location for our clients, both existing and potential. The move has been really successful with great feedback about our modern new facilities and an increase in business from passing trade and the growth of our brand’s prominence in the area.

What is exciting you about your sector at the moment?

“Physiotherapy is experiencing a great surge in growth as its impact broadens and the benefits of early-intervention therapy become better understood. We are one of the only organisations that focuses on private clinics, Occupational Health and the NHS so we are not narrowed down to one area of physiotherapy and see this growth in all three areas.

“There are a lot of new and forward-thinking businesses within the North East who recognise that they need to engage an Occupational Health service like ours to educate staff and provide training and treatment to keep people at work and reduce sickness absence. This is a real growing market as The Work Foundation estimates that employees suffering from bone and joint pain cost the EU’s economies 240bn euros (£200bn) each year.

“This isn’t an issue that can be ignored and we are excited about working with more businesses who can see great savings in time and money and increased levels of productivity, morale and staff retention. We believe physiotherapists will soon be common-place within workplaces and this really excites us.”

Who are the most inspirational businesses, or business people, that you’ve worked with?

“We have worked closely with Virgin Money over the past few years, providing their Occupational Health physiotherapy service onsite at their Gosforth Head Office and a national service to all of their branches and offices throughout the UK.

“We find them to be a very fresh and innovative brand with a great culture for modernising banking and offering a new way to deliver their services to the benefit of all staff, customers and stakeholders.

“They proactively encourage a good work/life balance which ultimately results in better productivity from staff. They have inspired us to change some of our internal business practices but also helped us to make recommendations to other clients.”

What key challenges has your company recently faced?

“Whilst we have started working with the NHS on a small contract, we are keen to work with them more. However, the NHS tend to have large procurement lots and many of the opportunities are too big for smaller businesses like Physiotherapy Matters to consider tendering for. We know that we could provide a highly effective, value for money solution but at present size is a barrier.

“Within Occupational Health, our key challenge is that a number of contracts require Doctors, nurses and counselling services in addition to physiotherapy so we need to partner up with other organisations who can provide these, this can make it more difficult to go up against larger companies who can provide all services under one roof, but we feel we bring the benefit of true specialism.

“With private practices, the competition is mainly price driven. We believe in quality and the old adage of ‘you get what you pay for’ often rings true. We ensure our therapists significant musculoskeletal experience and knowledge, and have worked in a NHS hospital environment so we can ensure quality of service as well as successful outcomes. This can make it difficult to compete with services where the therapists don’t have the same level of experience and training.”

What is your biggest focus for the coming year?

“Our main focus is to continue growing our presence in the Occupational Health market, expanding our reach further locations and entering new industries. It is critical that we continue to listen to what our clients want and have plans to create additional offerings such as a specialist rehab gym within the clinic with one-to one Pilates sessions and education classes for self-management for those with chronic problems to help manage their conditions.

“Our team is very experienced so we like them to be involved in regular brainstorms to see how we can improve and what additional services we can provide that will have a great impact for our clients.”