Latest Blogs

Like many acute Trusts across the country, the MSK, paediatric and pelvic health physio teams at Ashford and St Peters (ASPH) in Surrey were facing competing demands on rehabilitation space as a result of the pandemic. Building on the ideas they had to bring rehabilitation closer to home for patients before the pandemic hit, the team managed to successfully influence at all levels of local decision-making to secure gym space and clinic at 3 local gyms. In this blog post they describe how they achieved this, how their influencing efforts snowballed and the positive effect on staff and patients

Covid kills and Covid debilitates. So a vaccine is critically needed and I for one would be very happy to be vaccinated. The good news is that several likely candidates for effective vaccines are showing real signs of being able to protect people from the worst impacts of the virus. However, there is no evidence vaccines prevent transmission. They protected those vaccinated from the full effects of the disease. But we are some way from having the capability to mass vaccinate the whole UK population. Vaccines will have to be fully tested, evaluated as safe and effective and licensed. Although

For the first time, physiotherapy under graduates will be able to see primary care as a career choice as a developmental journey from the day that they register with the HCPC. The national route into MSK primary care roles as set out by Health Education England (HEE) is highlighted in the table below. All clinicians completing the required training via a portfolio or a taught route, will be recognised and held on a directory of practitioners at the HEE Centre for Advancing Practice. From April 2022, all clinicians will need to have completed the required training prospectively and

Great British Week of Sport is an initiative, led by ukactive with support from Public Health England’s (PHE) Better Health campaign and Sport England, aimed at highlighting the benefits that sport and physical activity have on people’s mental and physical wellbeing. I’m part of a national network of 40+ Physical Activity Clinical Champions (PACCs) - made up of physiotherapists, nurses and GPs - that works with PHE and NHS organisations to deliver free online training sessions to the healthcare workforce. Physical activity will play a key role in building the nation’s health resilience and

I was faced with a dilemma last Friday: I write a weekly email on Fridays to all CSP staff and I included a paragraph recognising how staff must be feeling about the distressing footage of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the sense of absolute outrage across the world at the implicit and explicit racism still so prevalent in our society and challenged by the Black Lives Matter campaign. I apologised for how long it took us as an organisation to respond and my personal responsibility for this. And then I deleted the paragraph. I reinserted and deleted it twice. The email went to

Whilst key workers continue to face immense challenges, those of us at home can play our part in protecting the NHS from a influx of conditions related to inactivity after the restrictions are eased. Has lockdown changed our physical activity levels? The repercussions of lockdown are only just beginning to be understood. It is challenging at the best of times to get an accurate measure of physical activity at population level, and a sudden and extreme change adds further complexity. However, researchers have been scrambling to capture data and early reports are starting to be shared. Viewed

Much of this work is providing high quality treatment, care and rehabilitation to those with severe symptoms of Covid-19, primarily in the acute sector. But I’m also well aware that physiotherapy staff are doing incredible and invaluable work across the entire Covid-19 care pathway, not only in intensive care and acute wards, but also in community settings and people’s homes - providing essential rehabilitation to patients who’ve already been discharged. As we get through the pandemic we know more and more patients will recover, leave hospital and return to their homes. And when they do, we

First, the good news. Full funding for all FCP posts – up from 70 per cent. This is very welcome. It removes what had emerged as a barrier to implementation in some areas. The extra money is also accompanied by an expansion in the number of posts in the wider primary care team. The target is now to have 26,000 non-GP staff by 2023/24. This is up from the previous goal of 20,000. It's a substantial commitment to ensuring patients can see the right professional at the right time. This expansion will come in part by including more professionals from the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme