Opinion The Evolution of the British Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, 2025, Sivan & Haider

[rvallee]

The Evolution of the British Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/27536351251392199

No abstract, just a short editorial but it has things/news that we hadn't noticed so here goes:

Since 2022, the society has experienced a threefold growth, with its membership increasing from 200 (in 2022) to 650 by 2025. This includes 450 members within BSPRM and an additional 200 in the newly established subsociety—the International Post COVID and Post-Infection Conditions (IPIC) Society—launched with support from an NHS England grant in 2024.

Members have begun to expand into areas that were previously considered beyond the traditional scope of specialty, including physical (musculoskeletal) medicine, pain management, cardiac rehabilitation and post-infection conditions such as Long COVID, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), and autonomic dysfunction.

Yes. 40 years ago. Just begun. Barely a middle-ager toddling through the world.

Effective rehabilitation requires a multidisciplinary approach delivered by trained professionals, with rehabilitation physicians playing a central role. However, the UK’s PRM workforce is critically undersized and would require at least a 10-fold increase to meet the current European average. As a signatory to the WHA resolution, the UK government now has a responsibility to invest in expanding and training the PRM workforce. Without such investment, it will be challenging to provide adequate medical input across the spectrum of disabling conditions within multidisciplinary rehabilitation programmes.

 

[rvallee]

The International Post Covid and Post Infection Conditions Society is an initiative supported British Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (BSPRM)

Clinical Post COVID Society

This page is handled by Oxygen Builder please click "Edit Template" below

www.ipicsociety.org.uk

They have some content reserved to members. A quick look suggests the same old nonsense.

Long Covid Clinical Network - International Post Covid and Post Infection Conditions Society

Click Here to Join the CPCS as a Full Member Network Committee Dr Anirban Gupta- Committee Member Claire Jones - Committee Member Katy Scott - Committee

www.ipicsociety.org.uk

 

[Utsikt]

Seems like Sivan is the Chair of the BSPRM Research and Clinical Standards Committee.

That does not bode well..

Prof Sivan who is leading this is based at Leeds University, and is the government lead on Long Covid and advises on the ELAROS app we have concerns about. He is professor of rehabilitation medicine.

 

[bobbler]

You are correct that this feels highly pertinent. When I first read the bits you pulled out I had this thought of when reading the NHS England funding it almost looking like a deliberate landmine being left for pwme by certain individuals who had power there before it got dissolved.

And having whiffs of memory of how when the new Nice Guideline was finally published Sharpe etc 's first response was to write a paper claiming their old PACE model 'was only ever rehab' sounding like the typical rewriting history strategy you see of certain personality types.

I also remember around that same time - when there was the 'stoppage' on publishing the new guideline due to certain individuals requiring a round table which elicited the objections weren't based on substance - there being some surprising submissions of 'feedback' such as that from Turner Stokes and looking her up because it seemed she had never, ever been interested in or involved in ME/CFS ... so why was she commenting on a new guideline? Even her submission made it clear that it was the idea that the long covid guideline might somehow be linked to it, rather than any knowledge or experience of the condition that was actually being discussed or addressed that had been a prompt.

And I remember reading said submission and thinking it sounded like someone bumping into the usual bps contenders in a kitchen or someone asking on a telephone call for a few pointers of what they can write if they only had a day to lob something in and the usual tropes getting listed out etc. so it sounding to me as if she was getting a 'crash course' in ME/CFS not as a 'how to treat' but as a 'how to do the politics when writing a submission to object about the guideline' etc.

Anyway, this is relevant because of the following bit of 'history' they write about in this:

The society in the UK traces its roots back to 1942 with the establishment of the British Association of Physical Medicine, created to support the recovery and functional rehabilitation of war victims.

In 1970, it was renamed the British Association of Rheumatology and Rehabilitation.

In 1983, the society split into 2: the British Society of Rheumatology, focused on rheumatic diseases, and the Medical Disability Society, which addressed non-rheumatic disabilities. A few years later, the Medical Disability Society evolved into the British Society of Rehabilitation Medicine (BSRM).

So it seems it is the 'non-rheumatic' Medical Disability Society that has evolved into what the following evolutions/rebrands have now become..?

I haven't seen the bit yet where it confirms for sure whether the expertise actually changed ie in the rebrands it then started to cover and have rheumatic experts re-joining etc?

In 2016, members proposed the Rehabilitation Medicine Expansion Proposal (RMEP), which sparked a series of internal discussions around strategies for expanding the scope and workforce of the specialty. Ultimately, in 2022, to align itself with the international name, the society changed its name to the British Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (BSPRM) following a membership ballot.

Since 2022, the society has experienced a threefold growth, with its membership increasing from 200 (in 2022) to 650 by 2025. This includes 450 members within BSPRM and an additional 200 in the newly established subsociety—the International Post COVID and Post-Infection Conditions (IPIC) Society—launched with support from an NHS England grant in 2024. The membership has also become more diverse, with a growing number of Allied Health Professionals and researchers joining as associate members.

SO it sounds like this getting in on covid was part of an expansion ambition

The society’s financial position has notably strengthened, driven by membership, grants, courses, sponsorship and rising attendance at its annual scientific meetings.

 

[bobbler]

Bit worried about the following, and interested to look up more detail into what this means - although it is interesting given Sharpe's 'it was only ever rehab' as a history rewrite that it confirms 'apparently rehabbers don't think they were in on the act for those decades'??

Members have begun to expand into areas that were previously considered beyond the traditional scope of specialty, including physical (musculoskeletal) medicine, pain management, cardiac rehabilitation and post-infection conditions such as Long COVID, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), and autonomic dysfunction.

The upcoming launch of the National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC)—the UK’s first National Health Service (NHS) dedicated specialist centre for rehabilitation-focused clinical care and research—is also expected to significantly boost interest and investment in the specialty.

Sounds like one to lok into and keep a close eye on

 

[Eleanor]

They have some content reserved to members. A quick look suggests the same old nonsense.

Long Covid Clinical Network - International Post Covid and Post Infection Conditions Society

Click Here to Join the CPCS as a Full Member Network Committee Dr Anirban Gupta- Committee Member Claire Jones - Committee Member Katy Scott - Committee

www.ipicsociety.org.uk

Their speaker on 14 October 2025 was Lyndsey Woodman, a 'Health Qigong instructor, Breathwork instructor, Clinical Hypnotherapist, Master NLP practitioner and coach, as well as an EFT [Emotional Freedom Technique] and BWRT [BrainWorking Recursive Therapy] practitioner'.

It's such a mystery why the average doc doesn't think LC is real or serious, isn't it?

 

[bobbler]

I will note there is a lot of stuff about how the area is apparenly too small in the UK compared to other countries.

And yet the reference to the following:

The PRM workforce in the UK remains one of the smallest in Europe, with only 0.3 specialists per 100 000 population—well below the European average of 3 per 100 000.

Is only ONE reference: https://scholar.google.com/scholar_...abil+Med&pages=1-48&doi=10.2340/16501977-0028

Which is a book written in 2006 - which is an update of a book written in 1989 (the White Book) according to the only info this reference provides which is a blurb for said book.

An at best TWENTY YEARS OUT OF DATE statistic as the reference??

And because it is a book you can't access who knows if that is at all like with like?

 

[bobbler]

There is definitely an issue with referencing in the area - reminds me of where @dave30th has had to pick up on the stat that was wrong in a (I think?) FND paper once claiming 10% of all NHS money or appointments or something and it turned out it should have been 10% of 'working age' or something. And that then, because it wasn't corrected in the paper as people outside the sector might think would happen, still stood as a reference than hundreds of papers then could make the same claim and link to

.... and that underlining why this is so important that eg funders or politicians and laypersons need to get into the habit of checking

I have just been nosing through the website for the new National Centre for Rehabiliation (no idea from its blurbs to be sure it doesn't cover me/cfs or covid, but nothing saying it does so far - just 'life-changing illness' and injury): https://nationalrehabilitationcentr...ion-centre-heralds-new-era-for-rehabilitation

And on this page linked above, there is the following claim (the first statistic listed in the 'key statistics'):

Key statistics for the NRC

• In the UK, we have the second lowest number of rehabilitation doctors in Europe - with Italy being the lowest. (Ref: BSPRM)

When you click through on this reference 'Ref: BSPRM' it is just the website for the British Society for rehab medicine, not any specific page with this stat on it, not pointing to a page where the stats might be linked from, the home page. https://www.bsprm.org.uk/

UNless anyone else can play where's wally better than me all I can spot is the usual boxes with news announcement and boxes poitning to different sections as per most home pages.

Is this OK as a 'reference' when claiming the second lowest in Europe?

Shouldn't such claims have a reference like other 'key statistics' have that point to collected official statistics or even a national audit, official report or survey of some kind?

 

[bobbler]

Bit worried about the following, and interested to look up more detail into what this means - although it is interesting given Sharpe's 'it was only ever rehab' as a history rewrite that it confirms 'apparently rehabbers don't think they were in on the act for those decades'??





Sounds like one to lok into and keep a close eye on

OK here we are. The page on who the patients are at the National Rehab Centre: https://nationalrehabilitationcentre.nhs.uk/rehabilitation/our-patients

Patients who need specialist rehabilitation often have a range of medical needs, and at the NRC the focus is on supporting both mental and physical health.

The NRC will provide care to:

• patients with multiple injuries requiring musculoskeletal or spinal rehabilitation
• neurological (brain injury) patients with complex rehabilitation needs
• amputees following major trauma
• severely deconditioned patients who have muscle wastage, for example following a period on an intensive care or critical care ward, or following surgery
• patients recovering from surgery to treat complex or multiple fractured bones
• those patients needing support to manage long-term conditions