Trust physiotherapy – it works!

A self-referral OH physiotherapy service aimed at reducing staff sickness from musculoskeletal disorders

Summary:

A year-long trial of a physiotherapy service embedded in occupational health and specifically for treating staff members has shown a reduction of sickness absence of 29% as well as direct cost savings of at least £60,000. The service has now been made permanent. Physiotherapist Jonathan Sheppard explains.

THE 2009 Boorman Review¹ suggests that the National Health Service (NHS) loses 10 million working days a year to sickness, with a large proportion (around 46%) due to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). It is clear that …

Jonathan Sheppard is clinical specialist physiotherapist (occupational health) at St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey, Surrey

Author: Sheppard J

Tags absence boorman review healthcare worker msd - musculoskeletal disorder NHS

Occupational Health at Work February/March 2013 (vol. 09/5) pp25-28

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