Government urged to protect rehabilitation services

The Royal College of Occupational Therapists has called on the government to protect staff working in rehabilitation services from redeployment as the health and care services in England cope with a second wave of coronavirus.

Occupational therapists continue to experience a ‘tsunami’ of demand on rehabilitation support services, and as the NHS and Social Care sector start to grapple with winter pressures, RCOT has written a joint letter to Jo Churchill, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Prevention, Public Health and Primary Care, calling on the government to ensure that rehabilitation services are supported to restart fully.

The joint letter, which has also been signed by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and the British Heart Foundation, highlights that it is essential that those who are most vulnerable receive the rehabilitation support they require to avoid the long-term impact on their health and well-being, and how rehabilitation is playing a vital role in the recovery from coronavirus, as well as being a pillar of essential support for those with long-term illnesses, physical injuries and mental health problems.

The organisations also stress that symptoms of post-Covid syndrome have left thousands of people struggling to manage with day-to-day activities and that 91 per cent of people living with ‘long Covid’ will require rehabilitation in some form, according to recent data.

Rehabilitation is proven to facilitate hospital discharge, reduce the need for packages of care, prevent hospital admissions and reduce pressure on primary care. They argue that we need a national strategy for rehabilitation that ensures people and places that provide it are reopened with the staff and space to offer these services safely.