Physiotherapist doing a Health care assistants role

[Communityphysio94]

Hello, physio from the UK here working for the NHS. Just looking for people's opinions on an issue im having at work.
I work as a community physio providing rehab to msk neuro and respiratory patients. The aim of our team is to prevent hospital admission and support discharge so we are often quite a busy service.

A nursing team that is supporting patient discharges is struggling with capacity to complete care calls (such as washing and dressing patients).
Our managers have volunteered our service as physiotherapists and therapy assistants to pick up these care calls. As a physiotherapist I don't feel this is within my scope of practice and feel undervalued as a health care professional. When I tell my managers I don't feel comfortable to do this I am told we don't have a choice. We have no idea how long this is going to go on for and is impeding us from doing our own job.

This isn't the first time it has happened we did this during the peak of covid and was hugely underappreciated. What are other people's opinions on this? Has anyone experienced anything similar? Do I got to a union rep for further support? I feel therapists in our NHS trust are always used to bridge gaps in services and do roles that aren't within our scope. We are a very diverse health care professional but I don't think this should be exploited.

Any thoughts on the matter would be great

Thanks alot

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[Fyzzio]

Hi,
that is such a good question - I can feel your dilemma.
First question: Why was your Manager able to offer your services? Are you not fully booked?
Second question: Have all other avenues been exhausted?
And what do you mean by your efforts were "hugely underappreciated"?

Although I don't know that much about working for an NHS, I think, there are many factors that play a role here.
a) Your actual contract and job description. What does it say? Does it have a clause which allows your manager to deploy you to other tasks within the NHS as required/ indicated?
b) You're right - washing is not within our scope of practice. It is a general task that everyone has skills for - so falls into your general rather than professional competences. Dressing however, is. So... 50/50.
c) What about the people who have it in their scope of practice, like OTs?
d) If it happened before - has anyone notified the union rep then? What did they say?
e) You're feelings - the work wasn't appreciated. Would you do it again if it was appreciated? Why. Your feelings about doing the job are irrelevant to an employer in emergency situations. Tough, but that's what it is. I would not bring it up in a discussion but stay with the legal and professional aspects.

I wouldn't like to do it either. Just saying.
Cheers,
Fyzzio