Post-operative
shoulder physio,
on-site
Specialist post-operative shoulder rehabilitation in the practice rooms at the Mater — Thursday afternoons, by appointment, alongside Dr Hirpara's consult clinic.
Every shoulder operating patient is seen the following Thursday at CQ Hand + Upper Limb for a combined wound-clinic and physiotherapy review — the nurse surgical assistant and the physiotherapist in the same rooms, on the same afternoon. Wound check, dressing change, suture review where required, and the first supervised shoulder physiotherapy session, all in one visit.
Patients having a rotator cuff repair, shoulder replacement, instability surgery or labral repair benefit from this kind of early supervised rehabilitation: structured passive range, graduated loading through the specific phases dictated by the surgical repair, and progressive return to function. The physiotherapy plan is built directly around the operative findings and Dr Hirpara's protocol, with the surgeon, nurse and physiotherapist working from the same clinical picture.
Shoulder physiotherapy outside of the post-operative window — impingement rehabilitation, conservative cuff management, return-to-sport — can also be arranged through the same provider, either at the practice or at their primary clinic.
Kurt Nichols
Senior Physiotherapist · Partner, Entirely Health
B.PHTY (HONS)
Kurt qualified from Central Queensland University with a Bachelor of Physiotherapy (Honours) and is a partner at Entirely Health, where he also manages the group's Blackwater clinic and has a clinical interest in neurological rehabilitation. While at university he worked as a support worker, seeing first-hand the difference structured rehabilitation makes to day-to-day function. He practises across Entirely Health's Central Queensland clinics, with hospital and residential-care services across the region.
First session arranged automatically;
follow-ups through Entirely Health
The first physiotherapy session is booked by our practice staff at the time of surgery — paired with the wound-clinic review on the Thursday after the operation. Patients do not need to do anything to set it up; reception will confirm the time at discharge or when the follow-up is finalised.
Subsequent physiotherapy appointments are booked directly with Entirely Health at their Rockhampton or Yeppoon clinics, depending on location and rehabilitation phase.