ProSpinal: a new chapter for Hale’s spinal clinic

What began as a one-room osteopathy clinic in Hale has evolved into something much more specialised. Six years on, Martin and Sabrina Machata have unveiled ProSpinal – combining hands-on expertise with advanced technology to help people with persistent and complex back, neck and joint problems.

For Martin and Sabrina Machata, changing the name of their Hale clinic from Fern Clinic to ProSpinal was about much more than a new sign above the door.

The clinic itself had changed.

What began in 2020 as a traditional, one-room osteopathy practice has evolved into a specialist clinic increasingly helping people with persistent back and neck pain, disc injuries, sciatica, trapped nerves and arthritis – including patients who have already tried other treatments without success.

At its new home at The Stables on Ashley Road, ProSpinal combines the hands-on osteopathy on which the business was founded with innovative technologies including IDD Therapy, MBST, Shockwave and TECAR.

“We are still, at heart, osteopaths,” says Martin. “We’re still helping the general public with all sorts of aches and pains. But we also have the speciality of helping patients who have non-resolving back pain and neck pain.”

It is that evolution which eventually made the old Fern Clinic name feel increasingly out of step with the business.

“Fern Clinic represented really well what we did initially,” Sabrina says. “But ProSpinal represents much more of what we do now.”

Central to that change has been IDD Therapy, a non-surgical spinal decompression treatment used at ProSpinal for patients with conditions including disc bulges and herniations, sciatica, trapped nerves and persistent back and neck pain.

Investing in their first IDD machine proved transformative. The clinic began seeing more patients with complex spinal problems – people whose symptoms had not responded to more conventional approaches – and Martin and his team developed greater expertise in assessing those conditions, including interpreting MRI scans and understanding them in the context of a patient’s symptoms.

“The differentiating factor for us is the knowledge and the technology,” Sabrina says.

Demand eventually became sufficient for the couple to invest in a second IDD machine. ProSpinal has also introduced MBST, a magnetic resonance therapy used for joint and tissue problems, alongside Shockwave and TECAR treatments.

IDD remains relatively specialised, with Martin estimating there are just over 60 clinics offering it across the UK, many concentrated around London. MBST is rarer still, and Martin says ProSpinal is currently the only clinic offering it across the Manchester and Cheshire area.

The aim is not simply to apply technology to a problem, however. Martin says their osteopathic training remains fundamental to assessing the whole person and understanding what is actually behind their pain.

An MRI that looks alarming does not necessarily correspond with severe symptoms, while someone experiencing debilitating pain can have a relatively reassuring scan. Helping patients understand that distinction can be an important part of their treatment.

“A lot of it can be fear-based because they’re being told, ‘Look at your scan, you’ve got this,’ and it’s terrifying because you don’t understand it,” Sabrina says. “They come to us and we say, ‘We’ve seen this loads of times before. You can relax a bit. We can do something about it.’”

For some patients, that can mean exploring options before injections or surgery. When ProSpinal believes specialist medical input is required, the clinic refers patients on for further opinion.

The results can be dramatic. Martin recalls one patient who had been unable to work for more than six months and struggled even to sit for more than a few seconds when she first arrived.

“Now she’s walking and working full time, enjoying her activities and living a normal life without the need for further treatment, surgeries or medication,” he says. “Which is massive. Life-changing.”

It is a long way from the clinic Martin and Sabrina opened almost by chance six years ago.

The couple met while working at a clinic in London and had originally planned to move to Nova Scotia in Canada to take over an established practice. Covid put an end to those plans, and with Sabrina’s family in the North West, Martin began looking for premises around Manchester.

A small treatment room on Broomfield Lane caught his eye. They packed up their life in London over the August bank holiday weekend in 2020 and opened Fern Clinic on September 1 – just in time for another winter of Covid restrictions.

As the clinic grew and its treatments became more specialised, that single room – later supplemented by another room for the first IDD machine – became increasingly impractical.

The move to The Stables has given ProSpinal six treatment rooms, including three for hands-on therapies, two housing IDD machines and another for MBST. The wider team now includes osteopaths, sports therapists and reception staff, with Martin working as clinical lead and Sabrina as operations manager.

And it finally gave the couple the space to create a clinic that reflects where six years of development have taken them.

“ProSpinal represents the comprehensive pathway we take the patient on,” Martin says. “It represents what we are able to do much better and positions us for the future.”

That future, they insist, remains firmly in Hale.

“We love being in the area,” Martin says. “We’ve got lots of lovely patients, and people travel from different areas and love coming to Hale and Altrincham.

“We are going to stay here as ProSpinal. That is definitely our ambition – and grow from here.”

ProSpinal, The Stables, 213 Ashley Road, Hale, WA15 9TB (entrance on Leigh Road).