ISEM Sports Injury Clinic

The ISEM Sports Injury Clinic opened its doors to the sporting population of the Western Cape in February 2017. Initially, the clinic aimed to assess the need and feasibility of a sports injury clinic within the public health care sector. To our knowledge, the current sports injury clinic is one of two sport-specific clinics within the public sector.

Patients are referred by healthcare practitioners (GPs, Physiotherapists, Biokineticists etc) and are seen by a Sports Physician and Physiotherapist at one of our clinics. Because of this, we’re able to provide direct physiotherapeutic management (inpatient, outpatient referral, or home-based programme) for each patient when needed. The integral physical assessment between physiotherapist and sports physicians has been deemed highly valuable and complementary; in particular, on the busier clinic days. When needed, an orthopaedic expert can also be called upon for further input. Once a patient has been seen at our clinic, they are either given a home programme to follow to assist in the rehabilitation of their injury / concern, referred on to a specialist for further management, or referred to their community healthcare provider (physiotherapist, nurse etc).

The clinic not only provides a clinical service, but also serves as a teaching platform for sports medicine trainees, sports medicine student electives, and orthopaedic registrars. It is envisioned that the biokinetics program will be involved in the near future.

This clinic provides current and future research and teaching opportunities in terms of the underlying mechanisms and effective management of sports-related injuries within the public domain.

The ISEM Sports Injury Clinic fills a significant gap within the current clinical services without increasing burden on the Orthopaedics Department. Many of the patients seen so far would have ended up in the system if not managed properly and may have needed more extensive treatment if not given the conservative management now. As such, we believe that the ISEM Sports Injury Clinic may even reduce strain on the Orthopaedics Department through diversion of patients through conservative management and appropriate screening prior to surgical intervention.

We believe that the clinic, as highlighted by some of the cases seen, is particularly beneficial within the context of young future athletes from disadvantaged communities. The integral multidisciplinary approach with the physiotherapist, and potentially biokinetics in the future, is considered a major strength. This integral approach is a major contributor to the high level of conservative management (~80%) of injuries rather than surgical management.