A Foot Health Practioner (FHP) is qualified to provide routine footcare and maintenance for your feet. They can assess the condition of your feet and treat as appropriate and refer you if necessary.

Our feet are with us our whole lifetime and more and more people need some form of simple footcare to maintain the well being of their feet and ensure they remain mobile and have an excellent quality of life. Having diabetes means that the well being of your feet is of even greater importance and a FHP can provide a service where your feet are well maintained and any troublesome conditions can be spotted in their infancy and referred on.
 
Foot problems are very common and can affect every one of all ages.  From corns and calluses, to bunions and hammertoes, what often may appear as something small and insignificant, can pose great difficulties with footwear and with many daily activities like work and exercise. Additional problems may complicate matters, such as diabetes and poor circulation.  With regular foot care, foot problems can be prevented.

Looking after your feet is one of the most important aspects of personal health care, whatever your age. During your lifetime, your feet could walk the equivalent of four times around the world! When we are young, the joints and ligaments in our feet readily adapt to the shock of absorbing our weight.  As we grow older, structural changes like bunions and hammertoes can afflict these joints and limit their range of movement. Ligaments and tendons become less flexible and the foot needs more support and padding to adapt to the strain of carrying you around. 

To make sure that your feet stay healthy, you need to look after them, keeping them clean, warm and well supported. Caring for the feet is important to avoid foot pain as well as foot problems in the future.

Why Use a Foot Health Practioner?

There can be many reasons for using a Foot Health Practioner, from routine nail cutting to general foot improvement and health or even for specific foot complaints such as verrucas or ingrowing toenails. The service offered is to ensure your feet are healthy and in the best possible condition, whatever your age.

An FHP maybe used if you have mobility and/or flexibility issues or simply don’t have sufficient hand strength to operate nail clippers. It could be that your eye sight is not sufficient for accurate nail cutting and once a nail has thickened it can be very hard to cut. An FHP can deal with all of these issues for you.

To be a FHP you need to study and complete a Diploma in Foot Health Practice, where you are taught correct procedures and safe techniques, including safe scalpel technique.

Foot Health Practice requires practical skills, but these need to be backed up by a good understanding of the structure that we work upon (the foot), and how it relates to the rest of the body.
 
The foot cannot exist without the systems that support it:-

• the skeletal system means that it can take weight and support us
• the musculature makes the skeleton work
• the vascular system supplies nutrients and oxygen to the tissues, and removes waste products
• the lymphatic system helps defend us from infection
• the nervous system gives sensation and protection
• the endocrine system is involved in supporting our cells and keeping tissues healthy

In order to work safely upon the foot and understand the processes which must occur to keep the foot fully functional, FHP's learn how these systems work so that they are able to recognise what happens when the systems fail.

FHP’s provide a service to the private sector and work within the remit of their skills base.
FHP’s who are members of the Alliance of Private Sector Practioners are committed to Continual Professional Development (CPD) and are listed on the Accredited Register of Foot Health Practitioners.  You can check if a FHP is on the Accredited Register by clicking on the purple logo at the bottom of this web page.  You can also search for an FHP in your area.