Qsportsmedicine Military Rehabilitation Medicine

Qsports is a multidisciplinary medical practice and is Queensland’s largest specialist sports medicine practice. Sports medicine aims to treat, diagnose and rehabilitate all active individuals, as well as provide exercise programs for health and chronic disease. In 2009, Sports Physicians were granted specialist recognition, and now play an increasing role in the provision of military medical services.

Qsports is now Queensland’s largest private independent provider of military medicine and one of the largest in the country (source Medibank Private). Our specialists work closely with military doctors at all of South East Queensland’s military bases and understand the physical and psychological requirements of serving and discharging members.

Qsports liaises with post discharge military rehabilitation programs (eg DVA), and provides a military podiatry service (Mr Anthony Cox), specialising in overuse problems, biomechanics, injury prevention, orthotics and military footwear.

Qsports aims to provide a priority service to the serving military, and treats personnel similar to athletes with personalised injury prevention, diagnosis, accelerated rehabilitation and advice.

The Sports Physicians at Qsports have provided on-site educational meetings to military medical personnel at both RAAF Amberley and the Enoggera Military Barracks.

Qsports specialists have an excellent understanding of the physical requirements of the Australian military, and how these relate to different forces and corps. We often provide advice to our military referrers on fitness to undertake BFAs, return to run programs and the PESA test, as well as fitness up and down grades prior to deployments.

Qsports has the advantage that it is co-located with Imed Radiology Herston, an approved national provider of military radiology. This means that military personnel can often undergo radiology evaluation as part of a medical consultation, resulting in a faster, streamlined service with reduced cost from follow-up consultations.

Compartment Pressure Testing

Chronic exertional compartment syndrome (CECS) of the lower legs is a very common problem in military members. There are various theories why the fascial layers surrounding muscle groups (the compartments) become inelastic and scarred. CECS possibly results from the repetitive biomechanical changes from the altered gait of pack marching, in conjunction with the use of military boots. This means that muscles cannot expand with exercise and intramuscular pressure rises and muscle pain develops.

The gold standard test for chronic exertional compartment syndrome is an exercise challenge with a compartment pressure test. This requires an intramuscular catheter or cannula, to be placed in the relevant muscle group during or immediately after exercise. Qsports is Queensland’s largest provider of compartment pressure tests. Please note, because this test is quite specialsed and CECS is quite rare outside the military, the test is not a recognised procedure by Medicare.

Defence Force Recruiting Medicals

The Sports Physicians at Qsports offer an independent specialist assessment service prior to defence enlistment. These assessments and the resulting report are charged as per standard initial consultations.

We ask all potential recruits to bring all previous investigations and correspondence related to the condition(s) being assessed.

These assessments usually arise from an initial medical assessment at DFR, during which a musculoskeletal condition is identified requiring further evaluation prior to enlistment.

It is important that all patients attending for this assessment bring all DFR paperwork with them. All patients will need to sign a disclosure form prior to the consultation so that their relevant medical history can be recorded and passed on to the DFR referring military specialist.

All decisions about eligibility for military service will be made by DFR, however, the medical report provided by Qsports may be used in that determination.