Home Visit Physiotherapy in Andover
Get in touch today
Have a question, or want to see how we can help?
Andover and the villages to its north and west: physiotherapy in your own home
We visit people at home in Andover, mostly on the north and west side of the town, and in the villages beyond it, from Hurstbourne Tarrant and Vernham Dean to Weyhill, Appleshaw and St Mary Bourne.
Some families ring while Mum is still in hospital. She broke her hip, and after the operation she was moved to the rehabilitation unit at Andover War Memorial Hospital to build up her strength before going home. Others ring about something that has crept up slowly. Dad in Weyhill has Parkinson’s, and over the past year the stairs and the bathroom have turned into a careful, two-handed business. And sometimes Gran is already back in Charlton after pneumonia, so tired that the walk to the kitchen leaves her needing to sit down. Losing small, everyday movements is upsetting, for the person and for the family watching. We work on them at home, one at a time, until more of the day is back in their own hands.
Our services in Andover include:
- Physiotherapy for older people: stronger legs, steadier balance and more confidence on the stairs, the garden path and the way to the shops.
- Dementia physiotherapy: calm, unhurried visits built around everyday movements the person already knows well.
- Post-operative rehabilitation: getting going again after a replacement hip or knee at the Hampshire Orthopaedic Centre in Winchester, or after a broken bone has been fixed.
- Neurological physiotherapy: Parkinson’s, stroke, MS and other conditions of the brain and nerves, practising the jobs that matter around the house.
- Respiratory physiotherapy: for COPD, or breathlessness that has lingered after a chest infection, so that moving about indoors takes less out of you.
- Muscle and joint pain: sore knees and hips from arthritis, or a stiff back, worked on in the places where the pain gets in the way.
- Care home physiotherapy: sessions with residents in a quiet corner of the home or in their bedroom, in homes across the Andover area.
- Case management rehabilitation: structured rehabilitation after a serious injury, with regular written reports to the case manager.
Why families in Andover come to us
Andover is a busy market town, with stalls in the High Street every Thursday and Saturday, but much of the area around it is small villages, such as Vernham Dean, Tangley and Hatherden to the north. Hampshire County Council funds a bookable minibus for the villages of northern Test Valley, and for many families a trip into town still means somebody taking time off to drive. The number of very old people is also growing quickly. In Test Valley, the borough Andover belongs to, residents aged 85 and over went up from 2,837 to 3,741 between the 2011 and 2021 censuses, a rise of 32%, roughly double the rise across England (Census 2011 and 2021, Office for National Statistics). When your balance is shaky, a clinic appointment means arranging a lift, finding a parking space and sitting in a waiting room. Seeing you at home takes all of that away.
What to expect when we visit in Andover:
- Chartered physiotherapists only: every one of us is HCPC registered and a CSP member.
- No GP letter is needed. We visit wherever you are living, your own house or a care home, so there is no taxi and no waiting room before the work begins.
- A visit is a full hour, and nobody is hurried or made to feel slow.
- People tend to enjoy the visits: there is conversation and a laugh alongside the effort.
- You will always know what we are doing and why, explained in plain words without jargon.
- If you have been told something is no longer possible, we will take our own look and be honest about what we find.
First visit: Our office sends you a short health form first, which gives your physiotherapist your medicines, health conditions and any recent hospital stay in advance. In the house we look at what matters to you: getting off the sofa, the stairs, the back step into the garden, the path to the front door. We find out what is really holding you back, start treating it that day, and leave a clear goal for the next few weeks with a short programme that family or carers can join in with.
Who visits you in Andover
Our physiotherapist for Andover is based near Hungerford in West Berkshire, to the north of the town, and visits people at home in Andover and the villages in between. She also sees residents at Andover Nursing Home on Weyhill Road. The same physiotherapist wherever we can. If they are ever away, we arrange cover from an experienced colleague who is briefed on where things are up to.
Villages and areas we visit around Andover
North of Andover
- Hurstbourne Tarrant
- Ibthorpe
- Vernham Dean
- Faccombe
- Hatherden
- Tangley
- St Mary Bourne
West, towards Weyhill
- Weyhill
- Appleshaw
- Kimpton
- Penton Mewsey
Andover
- Charlton
- Enham Alamein
- Knights Enham
- Smannell
Not on the list? Ring us anyway. If your home is out of our reach, we will tell you so plainly.
What people around Andover want back
Hardly anyone rings us asking to get stronger for its own sake. They ring because something ordinary, like the stairs or a trip to the shops, has started to feel out of reach. Here is what people around Andover most often say they miss.
- Stepping into the shower without gripping the door frame first.
- Standing up from the dining table at the end of a meal without anyone’s help.
- Taking the recycling out to the gate on bin day.
- A Thursday or Saturday morning at the market in the High Street, and home again without feeling worn out.
- Being back at the church coffee morning, the choir or the bowls green.
- Not having to ask for help with something you have always done for yourself.
At the first visit we record what you can do now, so everyone can measure the change as the weeks pass.
What we help with at home in Andover
- After a hip or knee operationGetting the bend back, building strength, and practising the stairs and the car again.
- Coming home after hospital rehabilitationPicking up where the ward team left off, in your own house.
- Falls and unsteadinessBalance work, and learning how to get up from the floor safely.
- Parkinson’s and strokeBigger, steadier steps, easier turns and less struggle getting out of a chair or bed.
- BreathlessnessPacing and practice, so that stairs and short walks feel possible again.
- DementiaKeeping someone moving with movements that are already familiar to them.
Our pages on physiotherapy for older people, neurological physiotherapy and post-operative rehabilitation explain more about each of these.
Charlton Road, then home: where hospital rehabilitation hands over
Andover War Memorial Hospital on Charlton Road has no A&E. Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs it, sends emergencies to its hospitals in Basingstoke or Winchester, and planned hip and knee replacements for the area take place at the Hampshire Orthopaedic Centre at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester. The trust explains that there are currently no rehabilitation wards at its Basingstoke or Winchester hospitals, so older people who need one may move to a community hospital such as Andover. Here that is the Kingfisher Rehabilitation Unit, which the trust says aims to help older adults keep their independence. The hospital also has a weekday minor injuries unit.
Wherever the hospital stay ends, the harder part often comes afterwards, at home: the stairs, the bathroom, the front step and the chair by the window. We aim to see you as soon as we can, usually within one to five days of your first call. Still in hospital? Give us a call now, and the first visit can be planned for their early days back home.
Older patients often come home weaker, and looking at the whole person helps
Illness and a stay in hospital can take a lot out of someone, and more so with age. A US study followed 2,293 people aged 70 or older through a hospital stay for a medical illness. The share who went home less able to wash, dress or get in and out of bed or a chair on their own rose steeply with age: 23% of those aged 70 to 74, and 50% of those aged 85 to 89. Much of that can be worked on. A Cochrane review of hospital trials found that when older patients had a full assessment of their health, mobility and everyday life, fewer of them moved into a nursing home over the following months: 15%, compared with 19% of those given usual care.
Sources: Covinsky and colleagues, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (2003) · NIHR Evidence, on Ellis and colleagues, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (2017)
How we close the gap
Ready for the first days home
Phone while the hospital stay is still going on, and we can fit the first visit into the first days back, rather than waiting for a gap to open up.
Equipment that fits you now
Walking frames, chairs and bed rails that helped a month ago can start to hold you back. We look at what you have and suggest changes as you get stronger.
Your independence back
We start with the personal, everyday things, like washing and dressing, because they are the ones people most want to manage for themselves.
Along the River Anton
The River Anton Way runs for almost four miles from Charlton Lakes, through the town centre, to Rooksbury Mill, much of it on level paths beside the water, with benches along the way. A stretch of it with a friend, and a rest on a bench, is a good goal to work towards at home.
FAQ - Your local questions
My mother is on the Kingfisher Rehabilitation Unit at Andover War Memorial Hospital after a fall. What happens when she comes home?
We carry on where the ward leaves off, in her own home. Kingfisher is Hampshire Hospitals’ rehabilitation unit for older people, and the ward team will settle the discharge plan with her and the family. Call us before the date is fixed. With her agreement, we ask the ward staff what she can do now, what equipment and care are being put in place, and what still concerns them. Then we visit her in Charlton in her first days back and work on the real things: her own bed, her own stairs, the step into the kitchen. We keep you posted as she settles in.
Dad, in Hurstbourne Tarrant, now hauls himself up the stairs on the banister, one step at a time. Should we call you now?
Yes. A change on the stairs is often one of the first signs that strength or balance is slipping, and it usually shows well before a fall does. It is far easier to build on what he can still do than to start again afterwards. We would check his legs, his balance and the way he tackles the stairs, then give him practice he can fit into his day. No waiting list of our own. If you are already waiting for NHS physiotherapy, we can start in the meantime and work alongside it. His GP can also refer him to the NHS Falls Prevention Service, which runs twelve-week strength and balance classes, some of them over Zoom.
My grandad in Appleshaw has Parkinson's. He gave up on the exercise sheet his last physiotherapist left. How would you get him to do the exercises?
By making them part of things he already does. A sheet on the side table is easy to ignore, so we practise with him during the visit, in his own rooms: bigger steps down the hall, turning at the kitchen door, standing up from his armchair in one go. We find out what he is aiming for, perhaps getting to the pub or out into the garden again, and tie each exercise to that goal, so he can see why it matters. For company and a chat with people who understand, Parkinson’s UK runs the Andover Parkinson’s Café on the first Wednesday morning of each month at the Methodist Church on Bridge Street.
My aunt in Weyhill has arthritis in both knees, and she is frightened that exercise will make the pain worse. Is she right to worry?
It is a very common worry, and we take it seriously, but the right kind of movement is usually part of the answer for sore knees. Resting them for weeks tends to leave them stiffer and weaker. We start with small movements she is comfortable with, check how her knees feel the following day, and build up slowly, so she stays in charge. Pain is something we talk about at every visit, not a reason to stop. Later on, if she would like a class, Andover Leisure Centre lists ESCAPE-Pain among its low-intensity sessions, alongside Healthy Backs and chair-based yoga.
Mum does everything for Dad at their home in St Mary Bourne. Could that be holding him back?
It can, though she does it out of love, and it is very easy to slip into. When one person fetches, carries and helps with every move, the other gradually stops trying, and the muscles he isn’t using get weaker. We would see what he can safely do for himself, then show your mum where to step back and where help still matters, so she isn’t left guessing. That often takes some weight off her too. The Princess Royal Trust for Carers runs Andover Time Together, a monthly group for carers and the people they look after, at Augusta Park Community Centre.
My uncle lives in Vernham Dean, but we live in Salisbury. How far does your cover go?
Vernham Dean is well within it. Our physiotherapist comes from the north, so the villages above Andover, from Faccombe and Tangley across to Hurstbourne Tarrant and St Mary Bourne, are the easiest for us to reach, along with Weyhill and Appleshaw to the west. You don’t need to live close by yourself: with your uncle’s agreement, we can phone or email you after each visit to say how he is getting on. For places south of the A303, such as the Clatfords or Stockbridge, ring and we will check honestly. You will find our fees and the travel charge on our FAQ page, and we confirm them with you before booking.
Grandma walked into Basingstoke hospital with a chest infection and came home needing a frame and two carers. Can that be turned round?
Often, yes, at least in part. A week or two of illness and lying in bed can take a great deal out of someone her age, and much of what was lost can be rebuilt with regular practice once she is home. We would start with what matters most to her, maybe getting from bed to chair with one carer instead of two, or reaching the toilet with her frame, and build from there. We work with her carers too, so they help her do things rather than doing them for her. Back home in Tangley, steady progress is what we aim for, not overnight change.
Local support in Andover
There is a good deal of free help in and around Andover. These are sensible places to start.
Hampshire County Council Adults’ Health and Care: ring 0300 555 1386 to ask about a care needs assessment, equipment or advice.
Connect Transport on Demand: a minibus you book by app or by phone, serving Andover and the surrounding villages, including trips to Andover War Memorial Hospital, on 0333 015 1271.
Unity Connect Service: an Andover charity’s transport service for people who find ordinary buses hard to use, on 01264 356808.
The Princess Royal Trust for Carers, Hampshire: an Andover-based charity with a helpline for anyone looking after a relative or friend, on 01264 311680.
Connect to Support Hampshire: an online directory of groups, activities and services across the county.
Care homes in Andover
Andover and the villages around it have a number of care homes, some providing nursing and dementia care, such as Barchester’s Rothsay Grange at Weyhill. Families usually call us about something particular: a resident who has lost confidence on her feet after a fall, someone who came back from hospital and now uses a wheelchair to reach the dining room, or a parent who has stopped joining in with things. We plan the visits together with the family and the staff, see the resident somewhere quiet, and leave simple steps for the home to keep things going between visits. Our care home physiotherapy page explains the arrangement in more detail.
Care home managers in Andover — get in touch to discuss regular visiting physiotherapy for your residents.
Andover sits between our Basingstoke and Winchester areas. For those, see home visit physiotherapy in Basingstoke and home visit physiotherapy in Winchester. Can’t see your village? Ring us, or look through the full list of areas we visit, and we’ll tell you straight whether we can reach you.