‘Three to six months’ apparently is the waiting time that patients requiring physiotherapy on the NHS are facing at present --- that’s what has recently been warned in a new report from the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP)!

Going by the CSP’s ‘Stretched to the limit’ report, it is not just the long waiting time that is a bother for the patients who need to go undergo NHS physiotherapy, but also the fewer physiotherapy sessions that they are receiving as well as the prolonged pain that they have to bear because of cost-cutting and shortage of staff.

Revealing that a few of the primary care trusts (PCTs) have already announced a 50 percent reduction in their physiotherapy budget, the report said that the financial squeeze at the NHS is an indication of the fact that access to physiotherapy is declining, even though its demand is on the rise from patients suffering from sore backs, shoulders, and necks.

The slashing of physiotherapy budgets is rather disquieting, especially in the wake of the evidence pertaining to the cost-effectiveness of early access to physiotherapy services, which essentially offer clinical benefits to patients like heart-stroke survivors and those with musculoskeletal disorders of the joints, neck, and back.

Noting that physiotherapy can deliver cost savings to the NHS and the benefits to patients, the CSP said in its report that it has found that “physiotherapy services across the UK are currently being reduced, and this is having a negative impact on the quality of care for patients”!