Shortage of therapists relieved

Press, 13 February 1986, Page 2

Shortage of therapists relieved

A shortage of physiotherapists which led to the temporary closing of The Princess Margaret Hospital’s physiotherapy outpatient department has been relieved.

The chairman of physiotherapy services for the Canterbury Hospital Board, Miss Margaret Draper, said yesterday that 12 new staff had been employed by the department recently.

This meant that the hospital’s department had now reopened, and that all other services, such as the swimming pool, could now be fully used. Miss Draper said that a number of physiotherapists from overseas had

been employed, and other New Zealand physiotherapists had returned from travelling to work for the board again. The department was not yet fully staffed, and there were several physiotherapists leaving soon. But the severe shortage experienced last year did not seem likely to be repeated. Patients who previously had had to be referred to other therapy services could now be accepted by the hospitals again. Miss Draper noted that other hospitals throughout New Zealand, particularly Wellington, were undergoing the same shortage problems as she had seen here last year.