R. Handford & Co – Richard Handford

  • Member Profile

    Name: Richard Handford

    Name of Clinic: R. Handford & Co

    Where do you operate: Bishops Stortford, UK

  • How long have you been in business?

    20 years this month (May 2019)

  • What attracted you to Podiatry?

    The large scope of practice of a Podiatrist and professional autonomy.

    In the UK you can work in an acute NHS hospital or in your own clinic, I’ve done both.

    People are always grateful when you turn up as they can’t understand why you might want to work with feet, you’re always popular…

  • What’s driving your passion to be a Podiatry business owner and how will you pass this on, into your business and practice culture?

    It was always the autonomy and doing best for patients, more recently I’ve added doing the ‘best for team’ to that. I hadn’t realised the importance of the team before joining The Hive.

    We have changed the narrative of the practice and talk to patients about the team, what we do and why it’s important, the team benefit from success.

    We were honest in saying that we all have to work to pay bills and function and we will be doing it for a long time, so why not create an environment that not only provides the basics but contributes as well. We are still working on this but it’s the goal.

  • What are the largest business challenges facing you right now?

    • HR is still a voyage of discovery for me!
    • Understanding our value to patients and putting this over to them.

  • What are the 3 worst things you have seen in Podiatry?

    1. A local NHS Ingrown Toe Nail policy of removing an entire nail and destroying the nail bed for all patients, this included young people.
    2. A lack of empathy and refusal of care. Both these stemmed from blindly following arbitrary rules created in the NHS with no questioning by podiatrists either as professionals or as people.

  • What are the 3 best things you have seen in Podiatry?

    1. Genuine care for another human being
    2. Striving to be the best in the profession whether that be as a practitioner or a researcher, we have some amazing passionate people in our profession.

  • Other than being a fabulous Podiatrist, what do you do outside of Podiatry?

    • Being a dad to a teenage daughter and a husband
    • A bit of scuba diving on as many holidays as possible
    • Watching motor racing as a frustrated racing driver (the next project!)