Handing a patient an exercise sheet and expecting them to buy their own equipment is the default in most UK clinics, and it is quietly the biggest leak in a rehabilitation pathway. This looks at whether supplying patient take-home exercise kits is worth it, what one actually costs at clinic pricing, and the three models clinics use to fund them.
TL;DR
- Home exercise programmes fail on equipment far more often than on motivation.
- A basic take-home kit costs a few pounds per patient at volume pricing.
- Compare that against the cost of a follow-up appointment reviewing a programme that was never started.
- Three models work: absorb it, charge at cost, or prescribe and point.
- Absorbing it is usually cheaper than it looks once you count the wasted appointment.
- Whatever you choose, decide it as a service rather than leaving it to each clinician.
The problem with prescribe and hope
A patient leaves with a programme requiring a resistance band. To start it they have to identify the right product, choose a strength they have no way of judging, buy it, and wait for delivery. Every one of those steps is a point at which a tired patient with a new baby, or a painful shoulder, does nothing.
By the review appointment, the honest answer is often that they have not started. That appointment then becomes a repeat of the first one. The clinical time is spent, the outcome measure has not moved, and nobody is at fault.
Handing them the kit at the first appointment removes all four steps.
What a kit actually costs
A workable kit for most musculoskeletal and pelvic health caseloads is one resistance loop, a cut length of flat band, and where relevant a small ball.
- Loop: from £2.49 ex VAT, lower at volume.
- Flat band: cut from a roll. A 46m roll at £37.49 ex VAT yields a large number of patient lengths, which is where the cost per patient becomes negligible.
- Small ball: £6.66 ex VAT where the programme needs one.
Cutting from a roll rather than issuing pre-cut singles is the decision that makes this affordable, and it is covered in more detail in our guide to equipping a women's health physiotherapy service.
Against that sits the cost of a follow-up appointment. You do not need a precise figure to see the arithmetic: if supplying kit converts even a small proportion of wasted reviews into productive ones, it pays for itself several times over. The comparison most clinics have never actually run is kit cost per patient against clinical time per wasted review.
Three models that work
1. Absorb it into the service
The kit is issued at the first appointment as part of treatment. Simplest for the patient, best for adherence, and the model NHS services generally use where budget allows. Cost sits in consumables rather than in a separate line, which is usually easier to defend than it is to introduce.
2. Charge at or near cost
Common in private practice. The patient pays a small amount at the desk and leaves with the kit. Removes the barrier of finding and choosing a product while keeping the service cost-neutral. The margin is not the point, the removal of friction is.
3. Prescribe and point
You do not stock anything, but you give a specific product and a specific link rather than a generic instruction. Weaker than the first two, and considerably better than "get yourself a resistance band". If you use this model, name the strength and the length, because that is the part patients cannot judge.
For a postnatal caseload, our consumer brand sells a five-piece postnatal recovery kit for £14.99 that covers the loop, band and ball in one box, which is a reasonable thing to point a patient at if you would rather not hold stock.
Practical points if you do stock
- Weight your stock light. Clinicians consistently under-order the lighter strengths, which are what most rehabilitation actually starts at.
- Label the strength on the bag. Colour alone is not memorable a week later.
- Cut band lengths in advance. Doing it during an appointment burns clinical time.
- Give written instructions with it, including how to clean it and when to replace it.
- Order at service level. Volume tiers apply across the order, so consolidating beats five clinicians ordering separately.
- Choose latex-free so you are not screening for allergy or holding two parallel lines.
The objection worth taking seriously
Some services argue that a patient who invests their own money is more likely to comply. It is a reasonable hypothesis and it is not what most clinicians observe. The barrier is rarely the cost of a band, it is the effort of identifying and obtaining one at a point when the patient is tired, sore or busy. Removing effort tends to move adherence more than adding financial commitment does.
If you want to test it rather than argue about it, issue kits to one clinician's caseload for a quarter and compare home programme completion at review against a colleague who does not. It is a small piece of service evaluation and it settles the question locally.
FAQs
Should physiotherapy clinics supply exercise equipment to patients?
In most cases yes, because home programmes fail on access to equipment far more often than on motivation. Issuing a basic kit at the first appointment removes four separate points at which a patient can fail to start, and the cost per patient at volume pricing is small.
What should be in a patient take-home exercise kit?
For most caseloads, one resistance loop at an appropriate strength, a cut length of flat band, and a small ball where the programme needs deep core or inner thigh cueing. Add written instructions with the strength clearly labelled, since colour alone is not memorable.
How much does a take-home exercise kit cost a clinic?
A few pounds per patient at volume pricing, and less where flat band is cut from a roll rather than issued as pre-cut singles. The relevant comparison is not the kit cost in isolation but the clinical time spent on a review appointment where the programme was never started.
Should we charge patients for the kit?
Either model works. Absorbing it is best for adherence and common in NHS services. Charging at or near cost is common in private practice and still removes the main barrier, which is choosing and obtaining the product rather than paying for it.
What resistance strength should we issue?
Lighter than most clinicians expect, particularly for postnatal, older and post-surgical caseloads. Under-dosing is easily corrected at review, while over-dosing tends to produce a patient who stops. Our guide to prescribing resistance levels covers the progression.
Is it cheaper to cut band from a roll?
Considerably, once you are supplying more than a handful of patients. A roll removes the packaging cost of pre-cut singles and lets you match the length to the exercise, and volume pricing reduces it further.
Conclusion
The barrier to a home programme is almost never the price of a band. It is the effort of working out which one, buying it and waiting for it, at a point when the patient has least capacity for any of that. Removing those steps costs a few pounds and buys back clinical time.
Our latex-free loops and band rolls are priced for clinic ordering with volume tiers applied at checkout. Talk to us if you want a kit specification costed for your caseload.
