A new survey conducted by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) has found that more than half of Scotland's trained physiotherapists are unable to get jobs in the NHS. The report said that 74 of the 150 students who graduated in physiotherapy this summer have been twiddling their thumbs and have been unable to find work in the health service.
The problem is compounded by the fact that these graduates are heading off to Singapore and France to take jobs in banks and other financial institutions. The survey also found that £2 million of taxpayers’ money as wasted in training these graduates who are now unable to find gainful employment in the country and are heading for greener pastures.
"After months of competing with hundreds of others for just a handful of junior posts, many graduates have had to put their physiotherapy aspirations on the backburner," commented Phil Gray, CSP chief executive. He added that they were aware that some graduates had taken up jobs in Topshop, TSB and Tesco. "One's joined the circus, while others are working in factories to raise money for Christmas."
Gray was of the opinion that agencies who plan for the workforce requirements were in a large measure responsible for this current dilemma. He refuted queries that perhaps too many graduates had been trained. "It's shocking that a large pool of newly qualified physiotherapists is unable to get on the first rung of the career ladder, yet there are vacancies at senior level." he observed.
Too much was being made of senior positions while there were a large number of vacancies in junior posts, he said. "They desperately want to work for the NHS and spent years training at huge cost to the taxpayer," he pointed out. Each therapist used up £28,580 for his training. Mr. Gray said that junior physiotherapists undertook a large volume of routine work and it was mandatory that they had to be accommodated on the job ladder.
Scottish Health Minister Lord Warner acknowledged that there was a problem and said that they were working towards finding a solution, "A clearing house for physiotherapy job vacancies will come on-line in early December," he assured.
Posted
on : Tue, 29 Nov 2005 00:35 GMT | General News
By : Paula Jenkins
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