'I might never get my dream job'

By Jane Elliott
BBC News health reporter

It will cost Tony about £24,000 to be a student

Tony Brooks is so determined to become a physiotherapist that he will take a pay cut of more than 50%.

But, even after leaving his £38,000 job in IT to retrain, he cannot be sure of getting a post with just an £18,000 starting salary.

Despite the fact that the NHS has admitted needing more physiotherapists, nearly three-quarters of this years graduates are still without a post.

The government has announced a planned increase in the numbers of physiotherapists employed in the NHS from 15,600 to 24,800 between 2000 and 2009 - a rise of 59%.

Posts

But the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy(CSP) say poor workforce planning has meant too few posts are actually available and this means there are lengthy NHS waits for physiotherapy and a surplus of unemployed physiotherapists.

People like Tony are going for training places knowing that there will be future jobs, but the CSP worry that the gap between the jobs becoming available and the graduates completing their training could be quite lengthy, leaving them disillusioned and quitting the profession.

However Tony, who is a PHD and worked for the Medical Research Council in bioinformatics, has spent the last two years doing voluntary work in a physiotherapist department and is convinced that this is still the career for him.

It seems that somewhere along the line the planners have not joined up the dots Tony Brooks

He sees physiotherapy as a way of giving something back to society.

"The thing about my job at the moment is that there is not as much interaction. I was amazed at how much of an impact physiotherapists can have.

"The patients who are rehabilitating are full of praise for how much it can help them."

But he admits the future looks bleak for would-be-physiotherapists like himself and is highly critical of the NHS planners who have allowed the situation to arise where there is so much need and so few posts.

"It seems that somewhere along the line the planners have not joined up the dots. Somebody has not thought things through.

"I will not be changing my plans because it is something I believe in, both in physiotherapy and in the NHS.

Cost

"I am sacrificing a lot, but even though it meant me doing a third degree to qualify, I thought it would be worthwhile to help people.

"It is what I want to do and whatever it takes I will find a job, but I don't think it is the right way to attract people into the profession.

He estimates living for the next two years as a student will cost him about £24,000 in fees and living expenses.

But he said, unless there are some dramatic changes in the employment market, he and his fellow graduates might not be able to find a job.

"There were almost 100 applicants for just one post locally recently.

"There used to be a shortage of physiotherapists. I used to be told that there was 100% employment, but now this has changed and there are many from last year's course who are still looking for work.

"It is a little bit disconcerting for people like me who have given up a career for it. It has been a leap of faith.

"It would be nice to know that when I finish my course that there is a job available.

Unemployed

Phil Gray, chief executive of the CSP, said a survey sent to all 2,142 students graduating this year from NHS funded physiotherapist courses showed that almost three-quarters had no posts to go to.

"It is a failure of local workforce planning, These students chose physiotherapy because they are committed to the care of patients and a career in the NHS, but they were also led to believe that the health service would deliver enough jobs to go round.

"It now appears the NHS, at local level, has failed spectacularly in its responsibility to plan for the arrival of the very professionals it has paid to train.

"This scandal is a huge let down for our graduates and the growing number of patients who need their skills and expertise."

He said that hospital statistics showed that there was a greater need for physios, which he said were vital in cutting waiting lists and he called on Secretary of State for Health Patricia Hewitt to make more posts available.

We have been working for some time with the NHS's Workforce Team and the Charted Society of Physiotherapy to tackle this issue Spokesman for the Department of Health

"Failure to do this will result in the loss of hundreds of bright young professionals at huge cost to the NHS, the taxpayer, and patients across the UK."

A Department of Health spokesman said: "We are aware that some physiotherapist graduates are struggling to find their first NHS job and we have been working for some time with the NHS's workforce team and the Charted Society of Physiotherapy to tackle this issue.

"The first step we are taking is to enhance the NHS jobs website to ensure we have central data base of jobs and candidates and encouraging all trusts to advertise their vacancies with NHS jobs to ensure posts are filled swiftly.

"We also working with NHS Employers to encourage trusts to make junior posts available and, where suitable, fast track people into to more senior posts to create more graduate jobs."