#371 Why Physio Belongs at the Heart of Primary Care with Phin Robinson

What happens when a physio drives 35 minutes to see one patient, drives 35 minutes back, and does it again the next day? That's how Pure Physiotherapy started in 2006, in a small room off the back of a gym in Rotherham. Twenty years later, Finn Robinson's company supports nearly 250 PCNs across England, seeing over 90,000 patients a month.

In this episode, Tara sits down with Phin, returning guest, founder of Pure Physio, to talk about what two decades of building in primary care actually looks like.

They cover the 2026/27 GP contract, the uncapping of GP salaries within ARRS, the real risk of roles never getting properly embedded, and why squeezing appointment slots from 20 to 10 minutes isn't the efficiency gain it looks like on paper.

In this episode:

• Why the GP salary uncapping within ARRS is the biggest risk to additional roles and what PCNs should be thinking about now
• The clinical case for 20-minute FCP appointments, and what the evidence says about self-management and follow-up rates
• The difference between flexibility and instability, and how physio governance frameworks protect both patients and practitioners
• Neighbourhood health: genuine excitement, not enough money, and the networks that are making it work anyway
• Growth versus impact — why Finn measures success in patients reached, not revenue
• What it actually takes to set up a physio business: clinical excellence, passion, and a very long tolerance for doing everything yourself

Key quotes:

"Flexibility is a scale. Once you get to the point of unsustainability, it's unstable. You're just waiting for something to go wrong."

"I'm not interested in growth for growth's sake. I'm thinking — what can we do to influence people in a more beneficial way?"

Mentioned in this episode:

• Pure Physiotherapy / Pure Unity Health — pureunityhealth.co.uk
• Every Move Counts — the GoJoe movement challenge for health and care professionals
• The Lord Darzi report (October 2024)
• First Contact Physiotherapy (FCP) and the ARRS framework

Connect with Tara here

Connect with Phin Robinson via LinkedIn here, or via email here.