The Workforce Crisis in Numbers: Optometry and Physiotherapy

We've written before about the veterinary staffing crisis. But vets aren't alone. Two other disciplines — optometry and physiotherapy — are heading into shortages sharp enough to constrain how fast private practices can grow. Here's what the numbers say, and what a single practice can actually do about a national problem.

Optometry: a quiet shortfall

Optometry's crisis is quiet because the public rarely sees it — until the next available appointment is six weeks out. A growing, ageing population needs more eye care exactly as the practitioner pipeline struggles to keep pace. Practices that compete on testing-time and clinical respect, not just sales targets, will win the optometrists everyone else is also chasing.

Physiotherapy: demand outrunning supply

Physiotherapy has the opposite visibility problem: demand is everywhere. The MSK backlog pushes patients toward private care faster than clinics can staff for them. The bottleneck isn't patients — it's HCPC-registered physios, and the practices that can reach them directly capture growth the rest can't.

What a single practice can do about a national shortage

1. 1Reach candidates directly — in a shortage, the best people are passive; you go to them, not wait for applications.
2. 2Compete on the things that retain — protected time, CPD, autonomy — because in a shortage, retention is cheaper than recruitment.
3. 3Verify and move fast — when good candidates are scarce, a slow or sloppy process loses them to the practice down the road.
4. 4Grow your own — support and develop junior staff into the roles you can't hire for externally.