Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist - Cardio Respiratory

Job overview

We are recruiting a Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapist to join our friendly multidisciplinary team of Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, and Therapy Assistants. The service provides high‑quality respiratory and acute care across the hospital, delivering assessments, treatment, and rehabilitation for patients with complex cardiorespiratory needs. This includes early mobilisation, safe clinical management, and supporting effective patient flow. You will complete timely assessments to aid discharge and provide targeted inpatient interventions to support recovery and reduce length of stay.

You will work autonomously with strong analytical and clinical reasoning skills, able to interpret assessments, identify respiratory problems, set goals, and deliver evidence‑based treatment plans. Candidates must demonstrate confident decision‑making in cardiorespiratory practice. Experience in acute hospital settings, particularly respiratory or critical care, is desirable, alongside sound knowledge of respiratory pathways, escalation processes, acute deterioration, and physiotherapy’s role in preventing complications.

Excellent communication, effective time management, and the ability to manage a busy caseload are essential. The role also offers valuable opportunities for multidisciplinary working with medical, nursing, and allied health colleagues across acute medicine, critical care, and wider hospital services.

Main duties of the job

As a Clinical Specialist Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapist, you will provide a high‑standard, comprehensive physiotherapy assessment and treatment service for patients with a wide range of acute and chronic respiratory and cardiac conditions across acute care areas within the Trust.

You will work as an autonomous clinician, applying advanced analytical skills and clinical reasoning to interpret complex assessment findings, formulate appropriate diagnoses, identify patient problems, set achievable goals, and deliver evidence‑based treatment plans and progression. This will include management of acute respiratory deterioration, airway clearance techniques, exercise tolerance assessment, early rehabilitation, and optimisation of cardiorespiratory function.

You will be an active member of a 6‑day working service and, following completion and maintenance of on‑call competencies, you will work unsupervised within the Trust’s emergency on‑call and out‑of‑hours respiratory physiotherapy service, providing urgent assessment and intervention for patients requiring immediate respiratory support.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see the Job Description and Person Specification for more specific details regarding the job.