Local Woman Qualifies as Physiotherapist

FIBS

A LOCAL WOMAN, Kelly Moffatt, has recently qualified as a Physiotherapist. Corina Goss from FIBS has interviewed her.

KM: It’s been really good and there are a lot of people you know there so I settled in a lot quicker. It’s a bit smaller than some of the hospitals I’ve worked in Yorkshire and that sort of area. There’s a lot to do – a lot of different areas and a big variety of patients. It’s been good and very interesting.

CG: Why did you decide on a career in Physiotherapy?

KM: When I was 14 or 15, I wondered what I was going to do with my life. The work experience was coming up and I looked through career cards and chose Physiotherapy because it looked like good fun because you work with people and help them. It’s a more sociable profession rather than working behind a desk. I had a go at it when I was on work experience and really enjoyed it. That’s how I picked my "O" levels and everything.

CG: You’re just back here for a short time. Explain when you are going back to the UK and what you will be doing when you are there.

KM: I am going back in January, so I work in the hospital until 24 December. When I am home, I am hoping to get a job in Leeds at one of their teaching hospitals because there’s Leeds General Infirmary and Lt. James’s, which are massive and where you get a big variety of rotations. I am hoping to work there for a couple of years to gain a lot of experience, and then travel around the world, working different places. And then, ultimately, I would like to return and settle down here. During that period I would like to work here a few times just to keep my hand here as well.

CG: What do you think the importance is of having more than one Physiotherapist?

KM: At the moment, David is so over-worked. There are a lot of things he could be doing but he is just not able. He wants to set up an orthopedic clinic and there are lots of different clinics that could be set up to get people in together but there’s just not the time. It’s not practical. It would be great to have another physio there. David and another physio could work together. He’s working out at MPA twice a week and only three days in Stanley. So, he’s basically part-time in Stanley and there is definitely a need for more help in the physio department. Besides clinics, there’s a need for a stroke clinic and one promoting exercise. That’s a big thing down here at the moment. There are definitely more things that can be done in different areas of physio. People generally think of the outpatient side when people come in for a bad back of a bad knee. But there are also people on the wards with chest infections or in intensive care as well. Physios are needed for that side of things. The basics are being done here at the moment and we would like to get more done, really.

Kelly Moffatt who’s now working alongside physio David Snape. And as a result is helping reduce the waiting list. He says this is a great experience for Kelly as in a larger hospital a post graduate student probably wouldn’t get to work alongside a senior physiotherapist. And from the KEMH’s point of view it is good too in that she is being funded by Government, which has a budget to pay post grad trainees.