The vital role played by Physiotherapists in every stage of a patient’s care at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) will be showcased in a visit tomorrow (August 14) by Professor Karen Middleton, Chief Executive Officer of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP).

Prof Middleton will be meeting members of the physiotherapy service and wider multi-disciplinary team across the hospital to see how they work together to deliver the best in patient care to support recovery and improve outcomes.

As a Major Trauma Centre, the hospital treats some of the most serious casualties from across the region and beyond, many of them polytrauma victims needing several specialties from the point of admission through to discharge and continued rehabilitation. 

A service redesign to meet MTC requirements means that physiotherapists start an initial rehabilitation prescription within the first 24/48 hours of an MTC patient arriving. This guides their initial treatment but also their ongoing care, including information necessary for subsequent receiving hospitals and external agencies.

Prof Middleton will be introduced to physiotherapists from Critical Care, the Young Persons Cancer Unit, Burns & Plastics and Neurosciences, as well as a specialist from a general medical ward, to see and talk about how they and the unregistered physiotherapy staff support specialties throughout the hospital.

Yvonne Pettigrew, Associate Director for Allied Health professionals and Head of Therapy Services at QEHB, said: “We are looking forward to welcoming Prof Middleton to the hospital to show the scope of our department’s expertise across the hospital.

“We are fortunate to be working in a hospital that offers the very best in equipment and supporting IT systems to ensure our patients receive the best possible physiotherapy enabling the best outcomes.”

Prof Middleton was appointed Chief Executive of the CSP in February 2014. The CSP represents 52,000 physiotherapists in the UK.

The largest of the QEHB’s Therapy Services is Physiotherapy. Employing just over 100 registered physiotherapists and 25 clinical assistant support staff, the Physiotherapy service delivers clinical care throughout the hospital to both inpatients and outpatients. There are six RCDM Physiotherapists attached to the service who work alongside the civilian staff.

There are an average of 1600 new inpatient contacts and over 7000 follow-up inpatients per month. The physiotherapy outpatient service at QEHB treats an average of 320 patients a day, making this one of the busiest services of its kind. 

The majority of physiotherapy outpatients are specialty consultant patients, with a smaller number of GP referred patients, for whom QEHB is their local centre of choice.  The service has particular expertise in the treatment of complex musculo skeletal presentations and in the management of long term neurological conditions.