BVA ARCHIVE: Profiles
A day in the life of Ed Blake
Director & Head Clinician, Harley Street, London.
The sound of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" is about as appropriate an alarm call as I can think of. Five o'clock seems more and more early, especially when little Myles Blake has been awake since three am. I hear his 'pat pat pat' down the corridor then the high-pitched 'Dada bawl peas'. I am tempted to play a quick game however his mum quite rightly intervenes and takes him back to bed explaining that he needs to go to sleep. I think he stops singing to himself around four. I'm sure it was an Arsenal anthem.
A quick latte, and check of the BBC business report and then it's off to the train station for the six o'clock service to London Bridge. It never ceases to amaze me that I can never get a seat at that time of the morning. Having read the non-depressing parts of The Times, which only takes me two stops, I arrive a little later and hop on the tube to Bond Street and then walk the short distance to my physiotherapy clinic on Harley Street for seven.
The clinic is set out over the top floor of an old house and I must admit this is a great place to be so early. No one is around as the secretaries don't arrive until seven thirty and the phone rarely rings. This is the time to answer e-mails and dictate general correspondence for typing. I am vehemently opposed to paper files and made it a key element of the clinic to have everything computerised so access to notes and patient correspondence is quick and easy. This way I get a lot more done and don't have to fish around for misfiled notes. This is also the time I check the business parts of the clinic such as outstanding debt levels and send internal e-mails to my poor secretaries asking them to ensure a whole stack of different things are completed by midday. It is not uncommon for these poor girls to arrive to ten internal e-mails on a variety of subjects each morning from myself as well as the clinic e-mail, answer phone and faxes. They have a manic start to each day.
PhysioEd Medical is a fairly unique place as we are an entertainment industry focused physiotherapy clinic. There are five onsite clinicians who deal with the day-to-day management of musculo-skeletal injuries for numerous West End musicals, dance colleges, pop music and television acts and touring dance companies residing temporarily in London. We have touring physiotherapists on UK and European tours who e–mail me regularly with cases studies of their patients to confirm treatment strategies. This takes a little bit of monitoring though my staff are brilliant and there are rarely any problems.
Clinic starts at eight am and continues until around one o'clock. My caseload is a combination of 'civilian' private patients first thing followed by voice and musculoskeletal injury patients from the theatres from around nine thirty. The vocal treatments are really simulating as the clinic has excellent imaging equipment to monitor muscle recruitment patterns which is done dynamically with keyboard accompaniment to isolated the affected range. This in conjunction with manual therapy techniques to the perilaryngeal region is proving a good combination in treating dysphonic patients.
Ed demonstrates Real Time Ultrasound scanning.
One aspect of treating theatre patients is the essential communication with the company managers regarding their work status and prognosis. Occasionally calls need to be made to the general management of a show should complex imaging or Consultant opinion be required. I spend my time between one and half past discussing various patients' injuries with their management and then meet with one of the clinicians for a quick catch up on their clinical load and any other issues that may have arisen. It's also time to read the relevant post that arrived that day and to sign cheques and letters. This is the time I discover the 'lunch fairy' has made a most welcome delivery. Recently I also use this time to liase with my research colleague at the RNTNE Hospital to briefly discuss her MSc project.
The afternoon clinic runs from two until seven and follows a similar pattern to the morning. Further phone calls are returned from seven until half past and then I set off home to arrive around eight thirty. If I'm lucky I catch Myles before he goes to sleep for a quick story and then relax over dinner with my wife who explains that she'd like to convert the garage into a block of flats. Roll on tomorrow!
