For decades, France has covered itself with medical deserts, not only in rural areas, abroad, but also in urban areas.
While more than six million French have no attending physician, an ambitious transformation of our system is needed. This requires the commitment of all health professions in a collaborative approach to improve access to care and guarantee the quality of practice.
The proposals drawn up with the Cooperation Committee for Ordinal Institutions – Health (CLIO Health) to improve access to the health offer and co-signed by all the chairmen of health orders, as well as the bill on improving access to care through trust in health professionals, respond effectively to health desertification.
As part of the daily collaboration with doctors, physiotherapists have the opportunity to relieve medical practice. Coordination of care is already a daily reality in the doctor/physiotherapist relationship, especially through the systematic transfer of the physiotherapy report.
For 20 years, the physiotherapist profession has been gradually structured and developed, with the achievement of the physiotherapy diagnosis, the creation of a professional order, a CNP, and more recently a five-year university degree that gives the master’s degree and the creation of teacher-researchers. We remind you that since 2016, physiotherapists have taken care of many patients in emergency cases and in the absence of a doctor in direct access upon request, without there being any accident declaration and no complaints.
Direct access to the physiotherapist is indeed one of the solutions that must be mobilized quickly to free up first-line medical practices and emergency hospitals.
Direct access has proven itself in many countries for many years (direct access to the physiotherapist is possible in Norway, Denmark, Great Britain, Sweden, Spain, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Poland , Switzerland, Albania, Bosnia, Estonia, to name a few).
At a time when therapeutic abuse is spreading, where our patients are all too often victims of uncontrolled and too little condemned practice despite numerous warnings, it is necessary for all health professionals to be able to unite to jointly propose solutions that improve access to care. The 100,000 physiotherapists practicing in France and the students in training are ready for this collective transformation, the patients trust them, let’s not wait any longer!
Link: Proposals from health orders to improve access to health services through interprofessionalism – 13 October 2022
