Reflections on the Private Practice Barometer
A Snapshot of the MSK Sector
The recent release of the Private Practice Barometer provides an interesting snapshot of activity across parts of the MSK sector. Any attempt to gather insight into independent practice requires considerable effort in bringing together responses from across clinics and practitioners. Reports like this are interesting not only for the data they present but for the discussion they prompt across the sector. You can find the full report by HMDG here.
Understanding the Context Behind the Data
Reports such as the Barometer are also shaped by who responds and the networks through which surveys circulate. As with most sector surveys, that context can be helpful to keep in mind when considering how findings might be interpreted.
Retention and Patient Lifetime Value
One of the areas I found most interesting was the discussion around retention and patient lifetime value. Different MSK professions often operate under quite different care models, and that can influence how metrics such as retention are understood.
Different Clinical Models, Different Metrics
Physiotherapy has traditionally been structured around resolving a patient’s problem and discharging them. In contrast, some other MSK professions may see patients more regularly over longer periods. When comparing retention figures across professions, it may therefore be worth asking whether these numbers reflect business performance, differences in clinical models, or simply different patient expectations of care.
This is not to suggest that one model is inherently better than another. Rather, it highlights that benchmarking metrics can sometimes be interpreted in more than one way depending on the professional context in which they sit.
Marketing, Acquisition and Reputation
The report also discusses marketing and patient acquisition strategies within private practice. These are important considerations for any independent clinic, particularly as the sector becomes more visible and competitive. At the same time, healthcare differs from many other service industries. The way patients find care, build trust in clinicians and decide whether to return can be influenced as much by clinical outcomes and word-of-mouth as by structured marketing funnels.
Again, this may simply reflect the diversity of the MSK sector. Some clinics operate within larger commercial structures where marketing strategy plays a central role, while many independent physiotherapy practices grow primarily through local reputation, GP relationships and patient recommendation. Another point worth considering is the scale of the dataset. Surveys such as this inevitably draw deeper insights from smaller subsets of respondents when exploring particular questions in detail. This is a normal feature of sector surveys rather than a criticism of the work itself, but it does remind us that detailed findings are best interpreted with some context.
Insights from the Physio First Member Survey
Physio First conducted a member survey in 2022 which explored aspects of private practice activity within physiotherapy. While smaller in scale and profession-specific, it raised some similar themes around workforce pressures, pricing and the operational realities facing independent clinics.
Taken together, pieces of work like these contribute to a broader picture of the sector. No single survey will capture the full diversity of independent MSK practice, but each can add useful insight.
Perhaps the most valuable outcome of reports like the Barometer is the discussion they prompt. They provide a starting point for reflecting on how different professions organise care, how clinics grow and sustain themselves, and how clinical models intersect with business realities.
Episodic Care and Maintenance Models
For physiotherapy in particular, the distinction between episodic care and ongoing maintenance models remains an important one. Many physiotherapists still see their role as helping patients recover and return to function rather than building long-term maintenance relationships. That difference in philosophy may naturally shape how certain metrics appear when compared across professions.
Continuing the Conversation
Ultimately, the Barometer offers an interesting contribution to the ongoing conversation about independent MSK practice. As more information emerges across the sector, the opportunity will be to continue exploring these questions together and to build a richer understanding of how different models of care operate in practice.