Why are things so bad for physiotherapists just now?

[imogen]

My understanding of the problem based on radio news items is that the ISCP (professional association for physiotherapists in Ireland) is quite rightly insisting that physios straight out of college need to spend a year in supervised clinical work. These supervised posts are not available due to the general health service discombobulation. The HSE are trying to make the ISCP rescind their requirement for "on the job" training.

There is in fact a desperate need for physios in Irish hospitals which was why there was an increase in student places funded.

I can speak from first hand experience having been unable to receive physio except by paying for a non-specialist after I became temporarily paralysed in 2004. No outpatient appointments were available. I was told to stay in hospital blocking a neurological bed for which over 700 people were watiing for a further week to access physio. I refused to do this.

Physiotherapists can and do work in private practice in Ireland. I was lucky to find one who although not a specialist in neuro rehabilitation worked with me for a year to help me get back as much function as possible.

Rehabilitation will become more of an issue with an ageing population. In addition when conditions worsen it is often the physio who notices the problem and refers the person back for more medical care. I think the situation regarding the HSE and physiotherapy is an absolute disgrace.

I note the government has still failed to announce the members of the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 council which was supposed to happen at the latest by the end of 2006. This is the council under which physiotherapy will be regulated. No doubt announcements will be made on the eve of the election.

Best wishes

Imogen

Best wishes

 

[Gordanus]

aj the reason is 'cuts' justified by selective use of 'evidence-based research' through which health services managers in Ireland and UK axe specialisms. .

there are huge differences between the HSE and the NHS. You cannot extrapolate from one to the other. One of the differences is that the HSE hasn't yet heard of evidence based practice - or if they have, they're keeping it quite as they do not have enough practitioners here. (See shortage of neuorologists , the appalingly short lifespan of CF patients compared to the North, the UK, the US etc etc etc)
The reason the physios don't get jobs is because there's a job freeze in the HSEs.

 

[Welfarite]

There's a piece in the Health Supplement of Irish times today about how it "red tape" in HSE that is the problem, not the lack of jobs....

 

[Marie]

there are huge differences between the HSE and the NHS. You cannot extrapolate from one to the other. One of the differences is that the HSE hasn't yet heard of evidence based practice - or if they have, they're keeping it quite as they do not have enough practitioners here. (See shortage of neuorologists , the appalingly short lifespan of CF patients compared to the North, the UK, the US etc etc etc)
The reason the physios don't get jobs is because there's a job freeze in the HSEs.

Hi Gordanus - I don't want to depart too far from ajpale's post (which asks views on the prospects for young people training as physiotherapists) but the Health Services Executive is modelled on the Department of Health in the UK which was reconstituted into its present form the late 1970's. From the public statements of the Irish Minister for Health, investigative journalism on the policies and their effects and the fact the HSE Chief Executive was head-hunted from the NHS in the UK the HSE would appear to be pursuing the same public-private partnership strategy as the NHS. As other posters have pointed out this has an effect on recruitment. The HSE and the Irish public healthcare system are swiftly mutating into the same 'global' health care model in operation in America and UK some local variations notwithstanding. Stripping out ancillary services such as physiotherapy is 'cost-saving' in the short-term but pushes the public health system towards acute intervention. In the UK anything remotely preventative or rehabilitatative are being starved and increasingly available only privately. Newly-qualifying practitioners will find themselves working very differently.