For patients across Surrey, Hampshire and the south-west London commuter belt, osteoarthritis treatment in Guildford is now consultant-led and close to home. The Joint Pain Practice runs its long-standing clinic at GenesisCare Surrey, just off the Royal Surrey County Hospital site. Every consultation here is with Dr Richard Shaffer, a UK-leading specialist in low-dose radiotherapy for osteoarthritis. Care is calm, methodical, and built around helping you get back to walking, gardening, golf or whatever the painful joint is currently keeping you from doing.
By Dr Richard Shaffer
No surgery, no general anaesthetic
Low-dose therapy
Treatment delivered at GenesisCare Surrey, GU2 7AW
For people living with osteoarthritis around Guildford, the standard NHS and private pathway has often boiled down to two options: keep going with steroid injections that fade over time, or wait it out for joint replacement surgery. Low-dose radiotherapy slots in between. It targets the inflammation behind the pain without an operation, fits around work and family life, and the full course can be wrapped up within three weeks. Three things make this approach worth considering:
Low-dose radiotherapy works at the source of the problem, settling the immune cells that drive joint inflammation rather than just blocking pain signals. Around 10 million people in the UK have arthritis, and increasing numbers are looking for an option that sits between an injection clinic and a surgical waiting list.
Dr Shaffer set up his Surrey practice in 2011 and has since treated thousands of osteoarthritis patients across the UK. He serves as President of the International Organisation for Radiotherapy for Benign Conditions, the global body that sets standards for this type of treatment, and he trains other UK and international consultants who now offer similar therapy.
Guildford is one of four sites where Dr Shaffer holds face-to-face consultations, alongside Cromwell Hospital, Wimbledon and Nottingham. After your consultation in Guildford, you can have the radiotherapy course itself delivered here in Surrey or at any of our 15 UK centres, depending on where you prefer.
Low-dose radiotherapy has decades of clinical history behind it across mainland Europe, particularly in Germany, where it's an established treatment for benign inflammatory conditions. The dose used is a small fraction of what's given for cancer treatment, calibrated specifically to settle overactive immune cells in the joint without harming surrounding tissue.
A standard course is six brief sessions spread over two to three weeks. There's no anaesthetic, no needle into the joint and no recovery time necessary. Most patients walk in, are treated within minutes, and head straight back to work or wherever they were heading next. The relief tends to come on gradually rather than overnight. Most people notice meaningful improvements in pain and stiffness over the first four to six weeks, and there is often continuing improvement beyond that.
The clinical evidence is encouraging. A pooled analysis of 65 studies covering more than 7,000 patients reported long-term overall response rates of 75% for low-dose radiotherapy in painful osteoarthritis. For patients who have already been through physiotherapy, painkillers or steroid injections without lasting benefit, low-dose radiotherapy is often the option no one has mentioned yet.
Your first appointment is a proper face-to-face review with Dr Shaffer. He'll go through your symptoms, look at any X-rays or MRI scans you've had, and examine the affected joint. From there, he'll talk through whether low-dose radiotherapy is a sensible option in your case and explain how the treatment course would be planned. Consultations usually run around 30 minutes, and a clear written summary goes to you and your GP within a week of the appointment.
A typical course is six sessions spread over two to three weeks. Each session takes only a few minutes of actual treatment time, and most patients are in and out of the unit within half an hour, including check-in. There's no recovery period afterwards, so plenty of patients drive themselves home, and many head back to the office the same day.
That's the most common starting point for our Guildford patients. Many arrive having worked through painkillers, physio programmes, and steroid injections or hyaluronic acid without lasting relief. Low-dose radiotherapy is often most useful at exactly that point. You don't have to have failed every other option first, though. Some patients prefer to skip injections entirely and try this approach earlier in the process.
A GP referral isn't required if you're paying for the consultation yourself. If you're using private medical insurance, your insurer will usually want a referral letter for the first appointment. Most of our Surrey-based patients self-refer through the enquiry form and forward any previous notes, scans or specialist letters once the consultation is booked.
Most patients having low-dose radiotherapy for osteoarthritis are self-funding, because insurance coverage for this treatment is still inconsistent between UK providers and policies. We share full costs upfront before anything begins, so there are no surprises along the way. If you have private medical insurance, the most practical route is to get authorisation for the initial consultation first, then take the proposed treatment plan back to your insurer for a coverage decision on the radiotherapy itself.
The clearest sense of what treatment in Guildford is actually like comes from people who've already been through it. Below are a few words from patients who chose low-dose radiotherapy at GenesisCare Surrey after exhausting other options.
Dr Shaffer explained the treatment clearly so I had no anxiety before and during treatment.
I think this treatment is a great alternative to surgery.
Within 20 minutes of completing an on line enquiry form Dr Shaffer had called me personally, discussed my condition and made an appointment to see him. I never felt under any pressure and completely trusted his expert opinion. At last somebody who took notice and understood the condition. I would highly recommend his care.
The appointment and then the treatment was prompt and straightforward.
Most importantly, it was painless and appears to have worked!
Dr Shaffer was on-time and dealt with the examination of hands/feet. He was able to rely on records of a prior visit in 2011 to help with diagnosis (that I had lost).
He was able to recommend treatment and courses of action - whether through him or colleagues. He was very helpful.
Treatment is delivered at GenesisCare Surrey, a private oncology centre near the Royal Surrey County Hospital site in Guildford. The unit is staffed by experienced radiographers, equipped with precise radiotherapy machines, and designed around making patients feel looked after from check-in to leaving the building.
GenesisCare Surrey, Rosalind Franklin Close, Guildford, GU2 7AW
The clinic is just off the A3, around five minutes' drive from Guildford town centre. Coming off Egerton Road, take the second exit at the first roundabout onto Gill Avenue. Continue past the Royal Surrey County Hospital on your right until you reach the next roundabout, then take the first exit on the left. That leads onto a second roundabout, where you'll take the first exit onto Rosalind Franklin Close. Take the second right, and GenesisCare Surrey is on the left-hand side, less than 100 yards down. Free on-site parking is available right next to the building.
Guildford's two stations both serve the clinic well. Guildford main station and London Road (Guildford) sit on the South Western Railway line from London Waterloo, with journey times of around 35 to 45 minutes from central London. From either station, it's a short taxi ride or a pleasant walk through the town and up to the hospital site.
Local Stagecoach services run between Guildford town centre and the Royal Surrey County Hospital, with stops a short walk from GenesisCare Surrey.
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