Welcome to AST Rehabilitation & Physiotherapy Clinic
We, Adrian and Susanne studied Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation in Germany and until late 1995 we managed our own Clinic in Germany, when we then decided to move to Ireland.
We came to Cobh and went into partnership and managed a physiotherapy clinic and in the early years we had to learn how business works in Ireland, what the business practices is, the legislative and cultural framework for business, build a network of clients and valuable contacts while learning the English language.
Adrian identified that in the Munster area there is no patient rehabilitation service. Minimal physiotherapy is often provided in hospitals but achieves little in the sense of rehabilitation. In Cork and indeed Ireland the absence of any systematic rehabilitation for patients on leaving acute hospitals represents a major gap in the Irish health service.
Having identified that there is in Ireland a market for advanced physiotherapy and rehabilitation, we decided to open our own Rehabilitation Clinic in late 2005. The core competency of AST is Day Care Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation at the highest international level. The clinic was established and positioned as Patient Rehabilitation in its own right and is external to hospitals but medically positioned at an equivalent level.
By working with patients having serious conditions, AST strives to return people to a higher health level where they can enjoy a level of freedom not previously thought possible, return to work at an appropriate level, and where they can enjoy a quality of life previously also not thought possible.
We also provide occupational therapy and speech and language therapy.
The philosophy of AST is health improvement. Patients in acute hospitals (such as CUH, The Bon Secour, etc.) by definition are sick, and as soon as they transfer to AST Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Clinic, as day care patients are psychologically considered on the road to improved health. This means that the whole philosophy of AST is improving health independent of which entry level the patient is at. Entry levels of patients cover a complete spectrum from treatment of sport injuries to those who survived life threatening event such as stroke, road traffic accidents, victims suffering paralysis and cerebral palsy.
