BRIGHT young graduate Kirsteen Young gained a top degree in physiotherapy - but after four months she cannot find a hospital post.

Kirsteen, 22, said the NHS is crying out for more staff in her field - but cash-strapped departments cannot afford to pay her junior's salary of £18,000.

She has applied to 20 hospitals in Yorkshire, including York, without success - while patients in the area wait for 18 weeks or more to see a physiotherapist.

"It's crazy," she said. "Everywhere is saying they don't have money for junior physiotherapists, even though people in pain are waiting months for treatment."

Today, the Chartered Institute of Physiotherapy said that Kirsteen's case was part of an ongoing crisis this year, with only 25 per cent of new graduates gaining work across the country.

Kirsteen has found temporary work as a dental nurse while desperately looking for her dream physiotherapy job.

"I know that in Selby, where I live, there is an 18-week waiting list to see a physiotherapist. It is ridiculous when it is so important to treat people straight away," she said.

The NHS nationally has a target of treating physiotherapy patients within a maximum of 18 weeks.

Kirsteen, of Orchard House, Long Drax, graduated with a 2:1 from Glasgow Caledonian. She got three A-levels, all B grade, in biology, psychology and sports studies and nine GCSEs, all A to C grades.

In Glasgow, she excelled at helping children and patients recovering after strokes.

She said students on her course - one of the best in the country - only a quarter have found jobs.

"I've sent my CV everywhere, York, Leeds, Doncaster, Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham, Dewsbury," she said.

"I did have one interview in Hull, where I was told they would love to take on two juniors because there was so much work, but they just couldn't afford it."

Phil Gray, chief executive of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists, said: "These students were led to believe that the health service would deliver enough jobs to go round.

"It now appears the NHS, at local level, has failed spectacularly in its responsibility to plan for the arrival of the very professionals it has paid to train. This scandal is a huge let-down for our graduates."

A spokeswoman for York Hospital said: "We always take on a mixture of new starters and specialists in that department. Unfortunately, the vacancies we have at the moment are for specialists and not the basic grades."

Updated: 12:04 Tuesday, August 30, 2005