THE therapy team at Salisbury District Hospital includes approximately 70 physiotherapists, 40 occupational therapists and another 20 therapy assistants who cover every aspect of hospital life.

“We work everywhere from the acute medical ward and intensive care unit to the stroke unit, orthopaedic wards and specialist units such as burns and plastics, spinal and the Wessex Rehabilitation Centre,” Cris Mulshaw, Head of Therapies, says.

“We treat all patients that have any kind of rehabilitation need to help them leave the hospital as fit as possible. Qualified therapists work closely with the nursing and medical teams to tailor rehabilitation programmes to each patient. These are supported by the Therapy Assistant staff who help to implement the rehabilitation programmes, focusing on both functional activities: washing, dressing, getting in and out of the shower, for example, or more physical exercise programmes such as balance, fitness or going up and down stairs.

“We mainly care for adults but we do have a children’s unit where there is a team of eight therapists there.

“Salisbury has several specialist units such as the Spinal Injuries Centre and Burns and Plastics, Stroke and the Wessex Rehabilitation Centre. Patients in these areas often have had life changing events and require a long term approach to their rehabilitation which will often aim at returning patients to work or home whether in an adapted environment or with adaptive skills.

"One treatment area unique to Salisbury is the industrial workshop at the Wessex Rehabilitation Centre where patients can go and relearn work shop skills, such as carpentry, in a supervised and safe environment.

“Across all the wards we offer a seven day service, with staff working across different departments during the weekend - for example a Band 3 therapy assistant from the Burns Unit may work the weekend covering orthopaedic or one of the elderly wards. Flexibility is the name of the game.”

Cris, who now manages the therapy team, is a physiotherapist with a background of Community and Neurological rehabilitation.

“It’s relatively difficult to get into physiotherapy or Occupational Therapy (OT) but getting experience in healthcare before is a really good way and we actively encourage that here.

“We offer work experience days a couple of times a year for people at school – when they come in, they are given talks about physiotherapy and OT, they get shown around different areas to see people working and then they take part in a training session in our simulation unit.

“If they would like, they can also have an interview with a senior clinician to practice their skills and learn more about what’s required.

“We have quite a few people who started here as therapy assistants and then go on to become qualified in OT or physiotherapy.

“What’s really exciting for the future is a plan to create an apprenticeship scheme for physiotherapy and OT. It’s early stages but it would enable assistants at Band 3 to get onto the apprenticeship programme and do it here at the hospital rather than having to leave their post.

“A degree course is generally three years, or four years if it is done part-time. There is also a two-year MSc course which you can do if you have a previous degree, say in sports science, for example.”

Both professions are now regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council with a strict code of conduct.

For more details on either profession visit The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy website at csp.org.uk or the College of Occupational Therapists website at cot.co.uk