I read Victoria Owen's article on the Footsteps Clinic run by Polish physiotherapists with great interest (Oxford Mail, June 16). It quoted Jo Greenfields, whose son attends the clinic, as saying that NHS physiotherapy was in short supply, and that the budget has been cut for physios on the NHS.

My daughter faced a lot of competition to gain a place at university to study for a degree in physiotherapy, and is graduating this summer.

The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy is telling new graduates that there are insufficient new junior physio posts at local level, and it is lobbying hard in the NHS for practical solutions.

Apparently most of the new jobs being created because of increasing demand are at senior levels, yet there is a large number of vacant senior jobs, some of which have been vacant for a considerable time.

In the current financial year, there have been NHS vacancy freezes imposed across the UK, and some trusts, even in cities such as Leeds, are unable to offer jobs to newly-qualified physios at this time.

Very few junior posts have been advertised at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust this year.

The CSP has asked students and education institutions to lobby their MPs. I wonder if any other readers have experienced similar problems in accessing physiotherapy services to those of Mrs Greenfields?

RUTH WILKINSON

Thames View Road

Rose Hill, Oxford