CSP has responded to the Scottish Government's winter resilience plan for the NHS, stating it will not be possible to deliver without a stronger workforce - which includes more physiotherapists.
The winter resilience plan sets out several priority areas and actions that will be taken during the winter period when there is a surge in demand for health and social care services.
Its approach is built on the response from previous winters when Scotland saw the highest number of deaths in 30 years, due to extreme pressures on the system.
The announcements in the plan include:
- A £50m funding boost for Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) recruitment
- Up to £12 million of funding to expand Hospital at Home services
- The new funding for SAS will also support work to recruit a further 317 frontline staff to help increase capacity to emergency response
- It will also see 18 additional clinicians working in the call centre hub
- The expansion of Hospital at Home, which enables people to be treated at home rather than on a ward, is intended to deliver at least 380 additional beds this winter
Commenting on the new plan, Kenryck Lloyd-Jones, CSP policy and public affairs manager, said: 'We welcome the measures announced today, but they will only go so far without more staff.
'To ease winter pressures we need to reduce hospital admissions and speed up discharge to the community.
Physiotherapists are critical to providing the preventative care and rehabilitation that is needed, but there is not nearly enough of them working within the NHS.
We are calling on the Scottish government to act now to increase the supply of physiotherapists in order to sustain services into the future.
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