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Department of Health Update
406
pain. He proceededto bend down and told the doctor that it only hurt when he squatted. The consultant said he too had a pain when he squatted and sent the policeman home.
Handling Intentions Mr Skelly said he was often asked when teaching handling: ‘When do you touch the patient?’ ‘Before they come into the room’, is his stock reply. He reminded delegates that their ‘intentions’ towards their patients
were important. He said he had seen nursing staff moving patients, trying to ‘control’ rather than ‘enable’ them. During a practical demonstration he asked one of the physiotherapiststo place her hand on his shoulder and to resist as ‘hard as he could’ his attemptsto force her arm to bend. She failed. In the second demonstration with the same person, he told her to reach her arm out towards the wall opposite. This time she was able to resist the pressure. And as the physio-
Under-funding Slammed at Welsh TUC CSP delegates at the Wales TUC annual conference won backing for a motion which condemned the ‘scandalous level of underfunding’ in the NHS. Ruth Jones, CSP delegate from Nevill Hall Hospital, Abergavenny, said the Government’s reforms were in conflict with the philosophy of free health care for all. The conference in Llandudno said it would resist local pay bargaining and the attempts of self-governing trusts to undermineterms and conditions of service and to de-recognise unions. Delegates said they would oppose unjustifiable hospital closures as a result of the current city reviews, as well as any attempts to limit comments on matters of public interest by staff. Ms Jones - backed by delegate Joe
Davies from Whitchurch Hospital, Cardiff, also won support for better child-care facilities in the UK, which are among the worst in the European Union. The conference called for a fully-funded national policy on childcare to ensure facilities were available to all families that required them. The two delegates also proposed an amendment to a motion on upper limb disorders. The conference supported their call for legislation to ensure employers take adequate preventive measures. The delegates, together with colleague John Pestle, also helped to carry a motion asking for better ways to combat dark-room disease, suffered by some radiographers and technicians.
A touch of ageism hit the Department and kept us all scurrying around. It is a fact that Chinese walls turn fact into most amazing fiction, but of course, all of us a t some time have prioritised using age as a guideline. However, it was an opportunity to come up with some interesting facts to refute any claim that we do not care about older people. The latest Korner statistics show that our initial contacts have increased by 3% and that over half are for people aged 55 or over. They have also increased by 15% since 1989 for those people who are 65 and above, all of which at long last justifies collecting statistics. Membership of the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists with a Special Interest in Elderly People has risen by 16% since 1989 and represents 3% of all chartered physiotherapists. Further data show that approximately €17 million is spent on physiotherapy in day hospitals and a further €33 million on disabled adults with osteo-arthritis although I cannot verify these figures.
Current Issues
clinical co-ordinators over the last year or so. Anna Farrar has been invited to take up the new PAMs place, and as a speech and language therapist with wide experience in working with other professions and quality work, we hope that she will bring a fresh voice to the committee. 2. We will be allocating the Research Training Awards soon and are always optimistic that the bright and the best will apply. These are for PhD students who will be promulgating research for the profession in future years, so we need to choose the right candidates. We were very pleased with the response which broke down equally between the three professions on the initial trawl and short listing for interview. The next round will be advertised in the Journal in January, but there is some doubt as to whether the Department will continue funding these awards in the long term, so we will have to see what happens. 3. The Hospital Episode Statistics for 1990/91 have just been published in two volumes as has the NHS Workforce in England 1981 -1991.
1. The Clinical Outcomes Group has a new professions allied to medicine member and we have to thank Judy Mead for representing PAMs and the regional
4. Nursing and Therapy Clinical Audit will have been distributed to managers as should Just for the Record, a n extremely useful workbook for all levels
Physiotherapy,June 1994, vol80, no 6
therapists set about trying the two methods, one commented: ‘The more I relax my arm, the stronger it becomes.’ Mr Skelly spoke about yin and yang and the balance between the soft and hard sides. ‘Very often in our society you get a place by trying harder and harder.. Sometimes we use force to get where we are going.’ But he suggested that sometimes the most effective way was to be soft. ‘If in doubt be soft, it is easier on yourself and everyone else.’
CSP POLICY STATEMENT
Productivity Pay The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy does not believe that productivity is an appropriate way of determining physiotherapists’ pay. The CSP reaffirms its commitment to nationally bargained and fully funded pay awards based on factors such as comparability, motivation and the cost of living, and the Pay Review Body system. The CSP is concerned that the problems associated with measuring productivity will result in a concentrationon crude throughput measures, which take no account of quality, could result in undesirable cost cutting, and have a detrimental effect on patient care. Frequently, in health care, what is meaningful is not measurable and what is measurable is not meaningful.
of staff on record keeping. The latter is available through the NHSTD, St Bartholomew’s Court, 18 Christmas Street, Bristol BS1 5BT.
5. There are two important guidelines now in circulation. HSG(94)22 gives guidance on the new Regional Health AuthoritiedRegional Offices and BL(94)40 covers Codes of Conduct and Accountability which I mentioned last month. Another, EL(49139, is on the review of central requirements for information - uses made of information collected from the NHS.
Conclusion The NAO Report on Day Hospitals should be published soon and issues around disability continue to come and go. The launch of the therapy response to the Nursing Taskforce document on research is much welcomed and hopefully will give a boost to multidisciplinary research in the future. I also hope that all of you who are interested in research are being extremely pushy with regional research directors so that physiotherapy is well represented in next year’s projects.
Nicky Cogan MCSP Physiotherapy Offcer
pain. He proceededto bend down and told the doctor that it only hurt when he squatted. The consultant said he too had a pain when he squatted and sent the policeman home.
Handling Intentions Mr Skelly said he was often asked when teaching handling: ‘When do you touch the patient?’ ‘Before they come into the room’, is his stock reply. He reminded delegates that their ‘intentions’ towards their patients
were important. He said he had seen nursing staff moving patients, trying to ‘control’ rather than ‘enable’ them. During a practical demonstration he asked one of the physiotherapiststo place her hand on his shoulder and to resist as ‘hard as he could’ his attemptsto force her arm to bend. She failed. In the second demonstration with the same person, he told her to reach her arm out towards the wall opposite. This time she was able to resist the pressure. And as the physio-
Under-funding Slammed at Welsh TUC CSP delegates at the Wales TUC annual conference won backing for a motion which condemned the ‘scandalous level of underfunding’ in the NHS. Ruth Jones, CSP delegate from Nevill Hall Hospital, Abergavenny, said the Government’s reforms were in conflict with the philosophy of free health care for all. The conference in Llandudno said it would resist local pay bargaining and the attempts of self-governing trusts to undermineterms and conditions of service and to de-recognise unions. Delegates said they would oppose unjustifiable hospital closures as a result of the current city reviews, as well as any attempts to limit comments on matters of public interest by staff. Ms Jones - backed by delegate Joe
Davies from Whitchurch Hospital, Cardiff, also won support for better child-care facilities in the UK, which are among the worst in the European Union. The conference called for a fully-funded national policy on childcare to ensure facilities were available to all families that required them. The two delegates also proposed an amendment to a motion on upper limb disorders. The conference supported their call for legislation to ensure employers take adequate preventive measures. The delegates, together with colleague John Pestle, also helped to carry a motion asking for better ways to combat dark-room disease, suffered by some radiographers and technicians.
A touch of ageism hit the Department and kept us all scurrying around. It is a fact that Chinese walls turn fact into most amazing fiction, but of course, all of us a t some time have prioritised using age as a guideline. However, it was an opportunity to come up with some interesting facts to refute any claim that we do not care about older people. The latest Korner statistics show that our initial contacts have increased by 3% and that over half are for people aged 55 or over. They have also increased by 15% since 1989 for those people who are 65 and above, all of which at long last justifies collecting statistics. Membership of the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists with a Special Interest in Elderly People has risen by 16% since 1989 and represents 3% of all chartered physiotherapists. Further data show that approximately €17 million is spent on physiotherapy in day hospitals and a further €33 million on disabled adults with osteo-arthritis although I cannot verify these figures.
Current Issues
clinical co-ordinators over the last year or so. Anna Farrar has been invited to take up the new PAMs place, and as a speech and language therapist with wide experience in working with other professions and quality work, we hope that she will bring a fresh voice to the committee. 2. We will be allocating the Research Training Awards soon and are always optimistic that the bright and the best will apply. These are for PhD students who will be promulgating research for the profession in future years, so we need to choose the right candidates. We were very pleased with the response which broke down equally between the three professions on the initial trawl and short listing for interview. The next round will be advertised in the Journal in January, but there is some doubt as to whether the Department will continue funding these awards in the long term, so we will have to see what happens. 3. The Hospital Episode Statistics for 1990/91 have just been published in two volumes as has the NHS Workforce in England 1981 -1991.
1. The Clinical Outcomes Group has a new professions allied to medicine member and we have to thank Judy Mead for representing PAMs and the regional
4. Nursing and Therapy Clinical Audit will have been distributed to managers as should Just for the Record, a n extremely useful workbook for all levels
Physiotherapy,June 1994, vol80, no 6
therapists set about trying the two methods, one commented: ‘The more I relax my arm, the stronger it becomes.’ Mr Skelly spoke about yin and yang and the balance between the soft and hard sides. ‘Very often in our society you get a place by trying harder and harder.. Sometimes we use force to get where we are going.’ But he suggested that sometimes the most effective way was to be soft. ‘If in doubt be soft, it is easier on yourself and everyone else.’
CSP POLICY STATEMENT
Productivity Pay The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy does not believe that productivity is an appropriate way of determining physiotherapists’ pay. The CSP reaffirms its commitment to nationally bargained and fully funded pay awards based on factors such as comparability, motivation and the cost of living, and the Pay Review Body system. The CSP is concerned that the problems associated with measuring productivity will result in a concentrationon crude throughput measures, which take no account of quality, could result in undesirable cost cutting, and have a detrimental effect on patient care. Frequently, in health care, what is meaningful is not measurable and what is measurable is not meaningful.
of staff on record keeping. The latter is available through the NHSTD, St Bartholomew’s Court, 18 Christmas Street, Bristol BS1 5BT.
5. There are two important guidelines now in circulation. HSG(94)22 gives guidance on the new Regional Health AuthoritiedRegional Offices and BL(94)40 covers Codes of Conduct and Accountability which I mentioned last month. Another, EL(49139, is on the review of central requirements for information - uses made of information collected from the NHS.
Conclusion The NAO Report on Day Hospitals should be published soon and issues around disability continue to come and go. The launch of the therapy response to the Nursing Taskforce document on research is much welcomed and hopefully will give a boost to multidisciplinary research in the future. I also hope that all of you who are interested in research are being extremely pushy with regional research directors so that physiotherapy is well represented in next year’s projects.
Nicky Cogan MCSP Physiotherapy Offcer