physiotherapy news

I've not heard anything about physios in the news recently but there's a big story which won't be given much space in the newspapers or on TV. We now have another mass of newly qualified physios out there looking for jobs when 100's from the last 2 or 3 years of graduates still are not working within healthcare. I've ranted on about this in previous posts but I think it is one of THE major issues within physiotherapy in the UK. Sometimes it feels as if the problem is not being given a high enough profile but it should attact wider interest other than from just within the profession. Anyone who pays taxes is subsidising university training programmes which for many are leading nowhere.

The other issue affecting NHS physios is the pay award situation and I think this is rather gloomy situation. The Government descriminates against English physiotherapists by giving them a less favourable pay award than those in Wales or Scotland. Also within the public sector is the real term reduction of salary through paying awards below the rate of inflation. This point seems to have been lost in the issue of whether the aware will be staged or not staged.

physiotherapy blog

So somewhere I've found motivation to reschedule things in my life and start up the blog again. The biggest barrier to writing was the fact that this whole thing seems the stuff that saddos do, stuck in their bedrooms on their own typing thoughts onto blogs that no on in the whole world will read, believing that somehow what they are doing counts for something. The thing that changed my view of all this was realising that I've made it to the first page of Google if you search for physiotherapy blog. THIS changes everything! Suddenly all these meaningless rantings take on the potential of changing the course of world physical therapy, expanding knowledge, moving everyone onwards. No I don't really believe this but there's now a chance that what I'm doing will move beyond the value attributed to it within my own illusions (or should that be delusions ?) Maybe someone will read this!

Unfortunately in these last few busy months I've lost a bit of the anger at the injustices in the NHS and the way that healthcare is delivered in the UK. I doubt if it is anything to do with a change of Prime Minister. I'm just feeling distracted by some of the other things Ive got on the go.But here's something to make you English physios rant. The grand pay award of 2.5% for this year will be paid in full to nurses (and presumably AHPs) in Scotland, NE., and Wales but looks like those in England won't get it in one go. Is this something to do with the fact that the new Prime Minister is a Scot and has a lack of loyalty towards English NHS staff? And what about all Gordon's talk of the NHS, what's going to happen ? I heard he wanted to find out the views of NHS staff but as I've said before we all know this will probably mean the two professions (doctors and nurses) which the Government seems to think make up the entire NHS. will be asked what they think and the rest of us won't get a look in. There was talk of NHs staff fatigue over NHs change. Too true, the Labour years have been ones of constant NHS restructuring in the name of progress.I was talking to a patient this week about the billions that have gone into the Health Service and I said that despite the billons that have been put into the NHS the phyios where I work are under greater financial pressure than ever before.

just too busy to blog

OK so I've not done anything to this blog for ages. When i first started out I had the crazy idea I could keep 3 blogs going on different subjects but now i find that i'm too busy to keep just this blog going. I heard on TV that loads of people write blogs and send e mails in work time. There's no chance for this in the NHS, or perhaps more accurately no time to do this for fun. I spend a significant amount oftime every day sorting out e mails but they are all work related. That's just about all I've got time for. I was wiondering if excessive blogging is a sign of something, I'm not sure what, maybe not having enough going on that's more important or more interesting than sitting in front of a computer screen.

Is a ban on pain killers coming?

People are becoming addicts to over the counter pain drugs, so runs a recent news story. The last time this type of thing hit the news was over co-proxamol and it's use in suicide attempts. I have heard first hand how the ban on co-proxamol has badly affected some people and there is the risk that with the typical knee jerk reaction so prevalent in health care policy that another group of drugs which benefit many people will be removed from chemists' shelves. Drug abuse is something which needs attention but there is a massively unequal reaction to the small number of pain killer addicts compared to policy designed to address alcoholism. Alcohol has never been more readily available but UK health and social policy does not do anything to effectively reduce alcohol abuse. The Government has a vested interest in keeping alcohol consuption high because of the tax revenue it generates. There is a seriuos need to get clearer priorities in healthcare policy and to have a more transparent perspective of vested political interest.

NHS change

I get fed up with NHS changes. Just when you think that you understand how things work and there is an element of stability then everything changes again. I think this is because of the managers within the NHS and reflects the problem of management within the public sector. In the private sector a manager is judged by their contribution to company profit. However in the public sector everything is different. Because managers in public services do not produce anything (and actually cost the organisation) then they have to create the illusion of productivity by initiating change. Through changing things in the NHS they can make it look like progress or improvement. The hardest thing to accept is the way that Agenda for Change was applied to management. The biggest component of AfC scoring was for clinical activity,so in my thinking this should have made clinicians more highly paid that managers lacking clinical contact or expertise. This is definiely not what happened. I heard a rumour that one of the reaons for NHS financial problems were the large salary increases for managers under AfC. Just a rumour or near the truth?

Is wi-fi bad for your health?

There's an interesting news report currently on the BBC news website about Canada's Lakehead University,where there's a restiction in the use of wi-fi because of health concerns. If you look around various physiotherapy disussion forums you will see that discussions regulary come up about the safety of electromagnetic energy sources ( in the mainly shortwave spectrum) used within physiotherapy. I'd really like to know if there's a health risk from those things we've all been told are safe. There's probably not been any specific testing of physiotherapy equipment for it's effect on human tissue and definitely no long term studies on it. And what about the other things which are readily practiced in physiotherapy-things like TENS, acupuncture , manipulation ? Has anyone looked at potential for long term harm with these treatments? We're not talking about the immediate effects such as adverse clinical events associated with a neck manipulation or pneumothorax associated with acupuncture but the long term adverse health consequences, such as increased risk of developing certain health problems a long time after the event. Could having repeated acupuncture increase the risk of devloping cancer? Could neck manipulation increase the risk of stroke years after the event?

rescue plan

Appeared on the BBC newspage in the last few days is information suggesting that there will be a new scheme to help doctors who cannot get training places. This just reinforces the longstanding feeling that politicians believe thealthcare consists of just doctors and nurses. Where's the scheme to help the physios who can't get jobs, the 80% unemployed working in fast food outlets and other such jobs?

I'm thinking of changing this blog to one called "Blog on blog" because it's proving hard to keep it going even without problems arising from the computer like a week or so ago. I'm involved in some academic writing and trying to find time to sit down every day to write this blog is proving difficult.

News on the grapevine is that things are not looking good for physios all around the UK as a result of the PCT reorganisation last year. There seems to be a massive amount of restructuring going on all round the UK