MSK waiting times and the physiotherapy staff shortage – May in the media

Sara Hazzard, assistant director of strategic comms, was interviewed by the Guardian for a piece on the rising number of people seeking physiotherapy for MSK problems. She highlighted the workforce shortage in England and the need to increase physiotherapy positions in the NHS by 7% every year to keep up with rising demand and an increasingly ageing population.  

In Scotland, public affairs and policy manager Kenryck Lloyd-Jones, was interviewed by the Herald about the physiotherapy staff shortage which is leading to an increasing number of vacant posts in the country and called on the Government to increase the number of under-graduate training places to improve the pipeline of graduates entering the NHS. This story was also covered in the Scottish Daily Express and the Edinburgh Reporter following a debate in Scottish parliament which highlighted the issue to MSPs across the country. 

The debate was secured by a CSP member writing to their MSP Alex Rowley as part of our ‘Scotland needs more physios’ campaign. Physiotherapists working across different areas within NHS Scotland spoke about their struggles to provide a high quality of care to patients amidst workforce shortages in their teams and difficulties recruiting staff to vacant posts.  

Responding to this, the minister for public health and women’s health, Jenny Minto, said: 

"The Scottish government is not complacent. I recognise the need to recruit and train greater numbers of physiotherapists, and for two reasons, the first of which is to support the workforce needs of the future and to ensure the sustainability of such a vital profession." 

Finally, Chief Executive John Cowan was quoted in the inews on Labour’s plan to pay NHS staff overtime to cut waiting lists; he highlighted the physiotherapy workforce crisis and the government’s need to focus on the longer-term mechanisms needed to get more staff into the NHS to improve patient care.