Who This Service Is For
This consultation is suitable for adults with:
- Acute musculoskeletal injury or sudden-onset pain requiring clinical assessment
- Chronic or ongoing pain conditions that have not been adequately assessed or managed
- Worsening of a known musculoskeletal condition requiring timely review
- Pain following an injury, procedure, or period of immobilisation
- Musculoskeletal symptoms associated with a chronic condition — diabetes, hypertension, or inflammatory conditions — that complicate its management
- A need for referral to physiotherapy, imaging, or specialist referral to orthopaedics or rheumatology, coordinated through a medical assessment
If you are experiencing sudden, severe pain, chest pain, pain following significant trauma, or any symptom that seriously worries you, go to the nearest emergency department or call 112 immediately.
Situations Commonly Assessed
Spine and Neurological Conditions
- Acute and chronic lower back pain
- Neck pain and cervical spine disorders
- Sciatica and lumbar radiculopathy
- Disc herniation and associated nerve compression symptoms
- Thoracic spine pain
Joint Conditions
- Knee pain — including osteoarthritis, ligament injuries, and patellofemoral syndrome
- Hip pain — including osteoarthritis, bursitis, and referred pain
- Shoulder pain — including rotator cuff injury, subacromial impingement, and frozen shoulder
- Wrist and hand pain — including carpal tunnel syndrome and tendinopathy
- Ankle and foot pain — including plantar fasciitis and Achilles tendinopathy
- Elbow pain — including lateral and medial epicondylitis
Muscles and Soft Tissue
- Muscle strains and tears
- Soft-tissue injuries
- Tendinitis and tendinopathy
- Bursitis
- Sports injuries and physical-activity-related musculoskeletal conditions
Chronic and Systemic Conditions
- Osteoarthritis — assessment, management, and referral coordination
- Inflammatory arthritis — assessment and referral to rheumatology, when indicated
- Fibromyalgia — assessment and integrated management
- Neuropathic pain — assessment and management pathway
- Chronic pain syndromes — structured assessment and coordination of ongoing care
- Post-injury or post-surgical pain — review and management plan
Work- and Lifestyle-Related
- Work-related musculoskeletal conditions — repetitive strain injuries, postural pain
- Ergonomic assessment and advice
- Assessment of sports and exercise-related injuries
What Your Consultation Includes
Complete Clinical Assessment. Your doctor reviews the history of your pain in detail — onset, location, characteristics, intensity, radiation, aggravating and relieving factors, functional impact, and screening for red-flag signs. Any existing imaging results, investigation reports, or clinical letters are reviewed in full.
Red-Flag Screening. Musculoskeletal pain assessment always includes systematic screening for red-flag signs — indicators that the pain may have a serious underlying cause, requiring urgent investigation or referral. Your doctor assesses these signs as a standard part of every consultation.
Personalised Management Plan. Based on the assessment, your doctor advises on the most appropriate approach, which may include:
- Structured referral to physiotherapy and rehabilitation
- Imaging requests — X-ray, MRI, or ultrasound — when clinically indicated
- Referral to rheumatology, orthopaedics, or neurology, when specialist support is needed
- Lifestyle, ergonomic, and activity-modification guidance
- Clinical recommendations at the doctor's professional discretion
Ongoing Review. For chronic or complex musculoskeletal conditions, follow-up consultations are available to monitor progress, review test results, and adjust the management plan as needed.
Red Flags — When to Seek Emergency Care
Musculoskeletal pain is almost always benign — but some presentations require urgent assessment that cannot wait for a video consultation.
Seek emergency care immediately if your pain is accompanied by:
- Change in bladder or bowel function — incontinence or retention — associated with lower back pain. This can indicate cauda equina syndrome, a surgical emergency
- Significant trauma — a fall from height, road traffic accident, or significant impact
- Sudden, severe chest pain — which may indicate a cardiac or aortic cause rather than a musculoskeletal one
- Unexplained weight loss associated with new or worsening pain
- Fever associated with joint swelling and pain — may indicate septic arthritis
- Rapidly progressive neurological symptoms — weakness, numbness, or loss of coordination
- Constant, severe pain that does not respond to any position or movement
If in doubt, always err on the side of caution and seek emergency care.
Why Early Clinical Assessment Makes a Difference
Most musculoskeletal conditions are self-limiting — they resolve with appropriate rest, activity modification, and structured rehabilitation. But without clinical assessment, patients often under-treat — returning to activity too soon and causing further injury — or over-treat — restricting activity unnecessarily and prolonging recovery.
Early clinical assessment identifies what's actually happening, rules out serious underlying pathology, and provides a structured, evidence-based management plan that allows you to regain full function more quickly and safely than waiting for the situation to resolve on its own.
For chronic conditions — osteoarthritis, inflammatory arthritis, fibromyalgia, chronic pain syndromes — early clinical involvement with a structured management plan significantly improves long-term functional outcomes and quality of life.
Why Choose Our Care
Same-day access. Musculoskeletal pain — particularly acute injuries — doesn't wait for an appointment slot two weeks away. Same-day consultations mean you are assessed and managed in the clinical window where intervention is most effective.
Doctors registered with the Portuguese Medical Association. All assessments are carried out by doctors registered with the Portuguese Medical Association, with systematic red-flag screening as a standard part of every musculoskeletal assessment.
Coordinated physiotherapy and specialist referral. When physiotherapy, imaging, or specialist referral is indicated, your doctor coordinates this as part of the consultation — so you leave with a clear pathway, not just a diagnosis.
Same-day test requests. When X-ray, MRI, or ultrasound is clinically indicated, your doctor can issue the test request on the same day — so you can book the test immediately, instead of waiting for a follow-up consultation.
Experience with chronic conditions. For patients with long-term musculoskeletal conditions, we provide the structured, ongoing clinical oversight that chronic pain and joint disease require — not a one-off assessment with no follow-up pathway.
Multilingual. Consultations available in Portuguese, English, Spanish, Czech, and Romanian.
