Ealing Chiropractic Clinic

WestLondoner

£50 to have my pelvis mis-aligned. 22nd October 2009

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I’d like to preface my remarks about the appalling way I was treated by the staff at this practise with a quote from the Hippocratic oath, the code of honour in which doctors swear to ‘never do harm to anyone’. I believe chiropractors are not required to swear by this oath, but does this mean they are beyond the law?

I visited this practise on Monday 5th Oct 2009 with back pain. I have a slight weakness in my back which occasionally requires treatment. Having had chiropractic treatments before, I knew exactly what the routine should be. I even pointed to the exact point of weakness in my back, so the therapist I saw knew which area to treat. However, after manipulating my back, she told me to lie on my side, and performed a ‘lumbar press’ on both my hips. She told me I have one leg longer than the other, and this process would balance my pelvis.

The next day I was in pain in my right hip. I thought it was simply a reaction to the pressure used, so decided to give it another day. However, the following day it was not only worse, but my pelvis had clearly subluxed because of her treatment. I phoned and spoke to the therapist, telling her about the instability, and asked her why she’d performed the lumbar press in the first place, when there was nothing wrong. She became defensive and told me that I’d agreed to her performing it. I denied this, saying I simply wanted my back done. She then told me that it would get better in a few days. I waited a few more days. The pain and discomfort got worse.

If you take your car to a garage to have it’s brakes fixed, pay the staff for fixing the brakes, then realise the suspension has been broken by the staff who fixed your brakes, it is appropriate that the garage fix the problem they have caused with no charge – and an apology. It seems that Carragh, the practise manager of this clinic believes otherwise. I felt it appropriate that she, having more experience than her other staff, put right what one of her much more inexperienced staff members had put wrong. She made it clear that I would have to pay, so I told her it would be inappropriate for me to pay her to put right something that one of her staff had put wrong. She told me that I should take it up with the woman who’d damaged my pelvis. I told her that I had no wish to give the therapist who’d hurt me the opportunity of perhaps making things worse, and that I had confidence in Caragh’s ability to put it right. She reiterated her wish that I pay her.

It is now 16 days since my pelvis has subluxed. I will now have to pay another therapist to put it right. I cannot recommend this practise or its staff to anyone who seeks healing. In my experience, their priority is making money, not healing patients.