Rehabilitation First Awards

Physio Med has been recognised at a prestigious awards ceremony alongside North East Ambulance Service.

NEAS were awarded the Employer’s Rehabilitation Initiative of the Year at the Rehabilitation First Awards having worked with Physio Med to reduce sickness absence rates amongst ambulance staff.

As a public sector organisation NEAS delivers a vital service to the local community which requires employees to be in excellent physical condition, but they were experiencing high levels of sickness absence due to musculoskeletal injuries and conditions.

Physio Med provided NEAS with robust early physiotherapy intervention, providing timely access to a telephone based service, with face-to-face (F2F) treatment via its managed network of practices. This resulted in a 38 per cent reduction in musculoskeletal sickness in just 12 months, improved return-to-work rates and productivity levels and was highly cost effective, delivering excellent ROI of more than 13:1.

Recognising these results at the Rehabilitation First Awards the judges said they felt NEAS and Physio Med had implemented “an innovative program that put the emphasis on early intervention and produced great results.”

Physio Med’s Clinical Director Mark Fletcher, said: “The results we helped North East Ambulance Service to achieve were fantastic and we are absolutely thrilled that the innovative nature of the Physio Med service has been recognised as excellent within the rehabilitation industry.”