Provision of remedial therapists in geriatric medicine.

No agreement has been reached about what constitutes a satisfactory norm for the remedial therapy services. In geriatric medicine recommended norms vary from 0-26 to 0-5 trained physiotherapists and from 0-27 to 0-4 trained occupational therapists per thousand population aged 65 and over, with a corresponding number of therapy aides.'-4 In the light of the rapid increase in the numbers of very old people we thought it important to assess the present provision of remedial therapists in geriatric departments throughout the United Kingdom. Methods and results We received replies to a postal questionnaire on remedial therapist staffing from 213 (760,) of the 280 departments of geriatric medicine, which were responsible for 73 O of the elderly (65 years and over) in the United Kingdom. The table shows the number of remedial therapists in post and the numbers required to reach the lowest recommended norm of 0-25 trained and 0-5 total therapists (trained plus aides) per thousand people aged 65 and over. In each country the average number of therapists is well below these norms: indeed, it would require roughly 890 additional physiotherapists and 1250 occupational therapists to reach them. This would be equivalent to increases of 11°o in the number of physiotherapists and of 38%" in the number of occupational therapists in post in the National Health Service.