Consultant physiotherapist: a career goal achieved

Author(s): K. M. Vits - Pages: 25–29

Abstract

In 2000, the UK Department of Health announced that a new role, that of the consultant allied health professional, was to be developed and that there would be 240 such posts available nationwide by 2004. This followed on from the introduction of the nursing, midwifery and health visitor roles, which had been successfully implemented from 1999 onwards. The posts were created in order to provide better outcomes for patients by retaining clinical excellence within the service, and encouraging the development of innovative ways of working to enhance the patient journey and improve standards of care. The roles were designed to allow clinicians who wished to remain in patient care to benefit from a career structure similar to that of managers and academics. The holders of these new posts were to be clinical experts in their fields who would provide leadership and strategic vision, and also contribute to teaching and research. This paper examines how these consultant roles have developed, and discusses the challenges that the new post-holders face in attempting to encompass such a wide remit, the structures that are in place to help them, and the limited research to date evaluating their impact and the possible ways forward to develop new posts. It also describes the author’s personal journey to become the first consultant physiotherapist in women’s health in the UK National Health Service.

Keywords: clinical expert, consultant, development of posts, future.