Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the additional number of physiotherapists and physiotherapy support workers required to support people who have had covid-19 to rehabilitate.

NHS England recently announced that people suffering from longer term symptoms of COVID-19 will be offered specialist help at clinics across England.

A range of professionals, including physiotherapists, other specialists and general practitioners will all help assess, diagnose and treat thousands of sufferers who have reported ongoing symptoms. £10 million will be invested this year in additional local funding to help initiate and designate ‘long COVID-19’ clinics in every area across England, to complement existing primary, community and rehabilitation care.

As at May 2020 there are 2,548 (14.4%) more full-time equivalent (FTE) physiotherapists and 861 (23.7%) more FTE support staff to physiotherapists than in May 2015 to provide care to patients.