Long term plan: clinical topic briefings

We’ve worked with professional networks to produce some guidance for CSP members, helping you to identify what’s useful to you in the NHS Long Term Plan for England, and how you get involved in implementing it in your area.

Pelvic health

NHS England is now committed to improving access to postnatal physiotherapy to support women recovering from childbirth.  The plan proposes the development of multidisciplinary pelvic health clinics, which will improve pelvic health training for clinicians working with women throughout the NHS.

Physiotherapists, who are experienced and specialised in treating women with pelvic floor disorders, must have a strong presence within these multidisciplinary pelvic health clinics, to offer expert pelvic assessment and rehabilitation to re-educate pelvic floor muscles and restore function.

Respiratory care

England will see a radical expansion of pulmonary rehabilitation services over ten years, through a widening of eligibility requirements and use of population-management approaches to identify eligible people who have not previously been referred to rehabilitation. The plan also proposes new models of rehabilitation and self-management for those with less severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. 

To develop rehabilitation services for people with respiratory care needs, there also needs to be an expansion and development of the rehabilitation workforce, with physiotherapists and support workers central to this.  The growing number of physiotherapy graduates need translating into more staff in rehabilitation services to enable this expansion.

Stroke

The implementation and further development of higher intensity care models for stroke rehabilitation is a key commitment of the plan, which has a particular focus on rehab outside of hospitals.

A key message from the CSP and ACPIN is that stroke rehabilitation is similar to other neuro rehabilitation and should be brought together in local rehabilitation pathways where appropriate, with neuro rehabilitation teams embedded as part of this overall rehab system.

Cancer

The plan promises that over the next three years everyone with cancer will receive a care plan based on a full assessment of their needs, along with access to appropriate health and wellbeing information and support.

When delivering this commitment locally, commissioners should ensure that rehabilitation is from diagnosis – in the form of prehabilitation – continuing throughout treatment and beyond, including rehabilitation for those with palliative care needs.

Cardiovascular 

The plan sets out a bold ambition for improving cardiovascular health care, expecting that by 2028 the proportion of cardiac patients accessing cardiac rehabilitation will be among the best in Europe, with up to 85 per cent of those eligible accessing care.

The plan further states it will test and learn from services that jointly deliver cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation.  To implement this, local rehabilitation systems should be considered holistically with commissioners adopting a symptoms and needs-based approach to service and pathway design.

Older people

The plan’s ambitions for improving care for older people include a new approach to urgent community response and recovery support, and the national roll out of the Enhanced Health in Care Homes model. 

The plan also promises the development of multi-professional integrated community teams and hubs, which will work with primary care to conduct proactive case finding for people living with moderate frailty risk.  These teams should include physiotherapists and support workers, and have a strong focus on reablement and rehabilitation to optimise older people’s independence.

More information

NHS Long Term Plan for England