49% of NHS trusts in England lack funds to cover maternity leave — The Guardian

In the United Kingdom, 49% of National Health Service (NHS) trusts in England do not have a separate budget or a policy allowing them to exceed spending limits to cover employees’ maternity leave. This is according to an analysis by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy based on freedom of information requests, The Guardian reports.

Less support for physiotherapists

According to the analysis, physiotherapy services are in a worse position compared with other areas of healthcare. In 22% of trusts, maternity leave cover arrangements did not apply to physiotherapists. For nursing posts, this figure was 9%.

Women make up approximately 79% of the NHS physiotherapy workforce. The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy said that the lack of planning for staff replacements forces overstretched teams to carry out the same workload with fewer employees. According to the organisation, this may lengthen patients’ waits for treatment and rehabilitation.

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Calls for equal funding

Ash James, director of practice and development at the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, said that physiotherapy teams are much less likely than nursing teams to have access to funding for replacing employees on maternity leave. The organisation called on NHS trusts to ensure equal conditions for such funding across different clinical professions, and on the government to end the recruitment freeze and invest in physiotherapy services.

Patients’ Association chief executive Alastair Henderson said that the lack of adequate staff replacement in already overstretched services could mean longer waits for treatment and rehabilitation, less access to specialised expertise, and an additional burden on employees who remain at work.

Earlier research by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy also pointed to problems with space and equipment for rehabilitation: four in ten NHS physiotherapy staff had lost or expected to lose dedicated premises. In a survey of more than 2,000 members of the organisation, six in ten respondents said their rooms had been taken over by other clinical teams.