Consultant hand & wrist surgeon, Mr Mark Phillips, has been looking after a large number of musicians with hand problems lately. This has piqued Mark’s interest in hand problems in performing arts.
Mark is a member of the British Association for Performing Arts Medicine (BAPAM) and has lectured on their MSc course. He will be offering a free monthly assessment clinic for musicians at the BAPAM clinic in the South Camden Centre for Health from March. It seems that the vast majority of health problems in performing arts are musculoskeletal, and a large proportion of these are hand & wrist. The majority of patients are musicians. Mark will be travelling to the Performing Arts Medicine Association Meeting in Colorado this summer to hear the most up to date information.
Mark’s work has led to a resurgence of interest in his own passion for music, having taken a very musical path through Cambridge University when training. You may not know he played trumpet for the Footlights in the stage band on the summer tour, as well as playing in the University swing band (’78RPM’) and had his own jazz quintet. He also dabbled in the guitar, and played in a soul funk band whilst working at the Royal Free (‘Free Soul’).
Mark is playing again (at home) and doing ‘research’ at gigs all over London. He finds that musicians are greatly reassured when they discover that their treating doctor understands their language, plight and needs.
Musicians of course suffer the same problems as anyone else, as well as having problems specific to their art. Rates of surgery for all these problems are low (less than 10%) overall. Ergonometric solutions, adaptations and steroid injections are common solutions. Surgery needs to be adapted to specific needs (eg avoidance of finger tip incisions in string instrumentalists). Early “return to play” is encouraged or designed into the treatment plan. Most musicians are effectively on a ‘zero-hours contract’ – no play, no pay. So working with performers requires understanding of this.
Many musicians have no intention of retiring and so opportunities to perform surgery when work stops are not valid in this group. And they want to play for six hours a day – forever!
We are trying to help them achieve this.
To make an appointment to see Mr Mark Phillips please contact his secretary Viv
Email : phillips.admin@sportsortho.co.uk
Tel: 0207 496 3566