The physiotherapy department provides assessment and treatment to many services across the hospital, including:

Inpatient

  • Cystic Fibrosis (adult)
  • Bronchiectasis and Interstitial Lung Disease
  • Respiratory Support and Sleep Centre
  • Critical Care
  • Cardiac Surgery
  • Transplant - heart and lung (and gym sessions)
  • Thoracic Surgery
  • Cardiology    

Outpatient

  • Cystic Fibrosis (adult)
  • Bronchiectasis and Interstitial Lung Disease
  • Respiratory Support and Sleep Centre
  • Pulmonary Rehabilitation
  • Transplant
  • Thoracic Surgery


The physiotherapy team provides cover 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. There is a respiratory on-call service onsite from 16:30 to 21:00, and offsite from 21:00 to 08:30 for urgent/emergency respiratory treatment on weekdays. The weekend service has five physiotherapists (for respiratory treatment), and one physiotherapist on-call offsite from 16:30 to 08:30. In addition, two physiotherapy assistant practitioners provide rehabilitation treatment at weekends. 

The department accepts undergraduate physiotherapists on placement from the universities of East Anglia and Hertfordshire, as well as MSc students.

Courses we run
  • Basic Ventilation
  • Advanced Ventilation
  • Student Interviews
  • Thoracic Surgery
Conferences we attended

2020

  • March - ACPFC Conference
  • Sept - European Cystic Fibrosis Society Conference
  • Nov - SCRS Research Conference

2021

  • Feb - SCTS Annual Conference
  • March - ACPCF Conference
  • April - ACPRC Annual Conference and National Cardiac Benchmarking Collaborative
  • June - European Cystic Fibrosis Society Conference
  • July - End PJ Paralysis Global Summit
  • Sept - ERAS Virtual Conference
  • Nov - Virtual Physio UK
  • Dec - ICS State of the Art

2022

  • Feb - Transplantoux Time to Move symposium
  • March - British Transplant Society Annual Congress
  • May - SCTS Annual Conference and EuroELSO
  • June - Assistant Practitioner Conference

2023

  • March - SCTS Annual Conference
  • April - ACPRC Annual Conference, EuroELSO and Physiotherapy Research Society Conference
External teaching
  • Respiratory assessment teaching on post grad ICU nursing module
  • Role of physiotherapy following thoracic surgery as part of ARU nursing course
  • Proning workshop as part of ARU course
  • Sinus disease management and airway clearance at the Scottish CF society (Dunblane) - 
  • SCTS Webinar on The role of Physiotherapy within Thoracic Surgery
  • SCTS Webinar on The development of Physiotherapy with CT surgery
  • Presented on the ACPRC Short course on lung transplantation
  • Organised and presented on the SCTS course: An overview of heart transplantation
  • Pre-congress workshop at EuroELSO. "Physiotherapy and mobilisation masterclass"
  • "VA and VV ECMO" lecture Brunel MSc programme
  • ECMO Physio Network Lunch and Learn "Intro to ECMO"
  • Cambridge St John Ambulance service "What do respiratory Physiotherapists do? Training on basic respiratory assessment and management"
  • ACPRC conference: Chair Surgical Champion session "What impact do wounds have on post-operative recovery"
  • "Physiotherapy: Steps to Success".  44th Austrian Pulmonology and Thoracic Society conference
  • ACPRC/ECMO Physio Network study day
    • Organised "ECMO, physio and the MDT"
    • Presented "Respiratory Assessment & treatment in ECMO"
  • "Management of a Tracheostomy patient" and "Respiratory Physiotherapy" for Anglia Ruskin University
  • ACPRC conference 2023
    • Chair Surgical Champion session "Evolving healthcare roles in surgery"
    • Presented "The role of a Rehabilitation Assistant Practitioner in Cardiothoracic Surgery, ICU and Respiratory Medicine"
    • Presented "The extended role of a thoracic surgery specialist physiotherapist"
Posters at conferences
  • ECFS (Seville 2017)
  • Stroke service, VAD patients and Thoracic Screening Tool at SCTS (Glasgow 2018)
  • Single centre audit of rehabilitation with ECMO patients at EuroELSO (Prague 2018)
Published articles
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