Is there a recruitment crisis in physiotherapy? #physiotalk 31st Jan 8pm

Sometimes coincidences are too strong to ignore! I was just considering the topic for Mondays nights #physiotalk tweetchat and had settled on recruitment as the hot topic of choice, only to be tagged in a conversation on that very topic

So – here it is- the #physiotalk tweetchat on Monday 31st January at 8pm GMT will be on recruitment in physiotherapy. And more specifically the difficulties of recruiting into different clinical areas or geographical locations.

Of course, this is nothing new. The swings and roundabouts of workforce planning and student numbers have seen physiotherapy through several ‘boom and bust cycles’. We have known times when a hundred applicants for one Band 5 job was not uncommon, and also times when you have advertised a post repeatedly for there to be no suitable applicants at all.

Currently, it appears that physiotherapy is facing a shortage situation – a quick search on the NHS jobs page had over 800 hits for a physiotherapy post in England and Wales, 64 in Scotland and 14 in Northern Ireland. The vacancy rate in physiotherapy is said to be between 6 – 20%

So, what do you consider to be the key issues in recruitment as we head into 2022.

Are you struggling to recruit new Band 5’s because student and graduate numbers are low?

Are you struggling to recruit to Band 6 posts, as there are not enough experienced Band 5s ready to make that move?

Can you recruit to more specialist or advanced posts – perhaps the training isn’t there?

What about recruitment to remote and rural locations – always a struggle?

And how about the ‘hard to recruit to’ specialities – is that a myth or not?

Missed the chat?

You can catch up with the transcript here

Physiotalk are hiring

And talking about recruitment – do you know that Physiotalk are hiring (perhaps that’s what led me to think about recruitment in the first place!)