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Sheffield's Community Physiotherapy services set to improve with new appointment
1st February 2010
NHS Sheffield announced today (1 February 2010) a new multi-million pound contract to deliver an improved community physiotherapy service city-wide from 1st May 2010.
The contract has been awarded to Sheffield Primary Care Trust Provider Services and the Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust.
The move comes after GPs and other healthcare professionals told NHS Sheffield that they wanted their patients to receive improved community physiotherapy services - which were previously offered by different providers in different parts of the city, meaning patients received varying levels of service and differing waiting times.
Patients who took part in a consultation also said they would welcome improvements to the service. The consultation showed they felt the speed and flexibility of appointments needed to improve and that they would benefit from being treated closer to home.
The new service will cover what is known in the medical world as ‘Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy’, which means physiotherapy targeting muscle and joint pain. It will offer all patients across the city a range of services aimed at restoring movement and function and reducing pain, these will include pain management programmes, acupuncture, ultrasound, exercise treatment, manipulation, and access to a gym and swimming pool - as deemed appropriate to a patient’s treatment needs. Patients will be able to choose to be seen in a range of convenient community based locations, including GP surgeries.
NHS Sheffield set clear guides to ensure the service that patients receive is improved, this includes a waiting time of 2 weeks from referral to initial assessment or treatment.
Simon Kirk, Director of Strategy at NHS Sheffield said: “It is estimated that up to 30% of all GP consultations are about musculoskeletal conditions and that up to 60% of people who are on long term sick leave cite musculoskeletal problems as the reason* so it is incredibly important to the city that the service that patients receive is of the highest quality.
“We’ve undertaken a thorough process to ensure that the new providers will deliver exactly what patients and GPs have told us is needed in the city to offer the best possible care, and we’re confident that Sheffield Primary Care Trust Provider Services and the Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust are the best people for the job.
“Re-designing services so that they meet the needs of people across the city is not a simple process and we are grateful to the people involved in making the improved service possible - from patients and GPs to staff working in the service. Working together in this way has meant we have been able to ensure patients’ needs and high quality care continue to be at the very heart of all NHS healthcare in the city.”
Dr Ted Turner, GP at Shiregreen Medical Centre in Sheffield, who’s led on the physiotherapy re-design with NHS Sheffield said: “Patients with musculoskeletal problems often need access to physiotherapy within a time scale of days or weeks, and the physiotherapy service was due for redesign to improve its efficiency.
“Many GPs across the city have had input into how the service should be best structured, and we now anticipate a fairer and swifter service for our patients.”
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