NHS Workforce and Service Development

Part of Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day] – in the House of Commons at 12:44 pm on 11 October 2006.

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Photo of Andrew Lansley Andrew Lansley Shadow Secretary of State for Health 12:44, 11 October 2006

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The situation for stroke patients, for example, is utterly depressing. Even if they are able to secure early and intensive rehabilitation, sometimes treatment cannot be followed up to maximise their chances of recovery, owing to the lack of physiotherapists in post. We must have more physiotherapists. The Government said that we needed more physiotherapists and that there would be 60 per cent. more. People went into the profession as a result. A physiotherapist told me: "I knew what was intended so I went into the course. Now there are no jobs." That is a deeply depressing fact; it is a cruel irony played on people who took up such courses.