I heard today that the Speech & Language Therapy department in Southwark is to lose both qualified therapists and assistants who are to be made redundant.
This will be a huge shock to a profession that has not had to deal with this kind of thing before, and to the patients that will no longer be getting a service from these therapists.
I left the NHS 5 years ago because services were deteriorating to a point where my conscience would no longer tolerate it, and I wonder where it will all end.
Anyone who has ever experienced the isolation and disenfranchisement of a communication disability, or who has had to forego food and drink for days, weeks or months on end because of swallowing difficulties will know how service reductions will impact lives. Therapists are not administrators and they work on the front line with patients who need them.
Unfortunately much of our work is about quality of life and is not necessarily life saving, and therefore falls to the bottom of the pile. And many of the people who use the services have no voice with which to complain.
