NHS physiotherapy staff in Wales will strike in February, CSP confirms

The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) has announced that NHS physiotherapy staff in all Welsh health boards will strike on 7 February.

This will be a national strike and the first time physiotherapy staff in Wales have walked out over pay.

The planned industrial action follows CSP achieving mandates to strike across every health board in Wales, covering 1,500 physiotherapy staff, through ballots held at the end of last year and this month.

In December, an overwhelming 89 percent of cast votes in Wales voted in favour of strike action due to ongoing disputes over NHS physiotherapy pay.

CSP participated in talks with the Welsh Government on 12 January along with eight other health unions. Despite this, no clear pay offer was made to the society’s members, so strike action is going ahead.

Adam Morgan, Senior Negotiating Officer for CSP in Wales, said: “Physiotherapy staff in Wales will now walk out on a national day of action on February 7, but we will of course continue to meet with the Welsh Government to try to resolve this dispute. We want to be able to come back with a fair and firm pay offer that we can put to our members.

“Physiotherapists and support workers voted for strike action because the current pay award was not enough to help them through the cost of living crisis. It’s not a decision that any of our members in Wales take lightly but the current pay award does not go far enough to address the workforce crisis.

“No one wants to strike but physiotherapy staff have been left with no choice. Patients are struggling to get the care they need because a decade of under-investment in the NHS has led to chronic workforce shortages. It’s vital that there is a decent pay offer, not only to retain current physio staff but to attract new people to the profession.”

Similar action is happening in England, where CSP members are striking on 26 January and 9 February.

After ongoing negotiations with the Scottish Government, CSP members in Scotland voted to accept an improved pay offer at the end of 2022.

Physiotherapists may work with assistive technologies to support people with their rehabilitation programmes, such as sit-to-stand devices, exoskeletons, and gamified stroke technology. Find out more about the latest assistive rehabilitation technologies on AT Today.