The Order of Physiotherapists was received this Monday at the Ministry of Health for a meeting convened by the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, with the agenda "Contributions to Health Policy".
With a view to better healthcare provision, one of the issues addressed was referral, namely "the possibility of referral to physiotherapy by any doctor, particularly in terms of the possibility of intervention not only in the area of rehabilitation, but also in the area of primary healthcare and from health promotion to disease prevention".
The meeting was also an opportunity to address the need to integrate more physiotherapists into the National Health Service (SNS), with reference to the Eurostat report that points to a European average of 136.7 physiotherapists per 100,000 inhabitants in 2021: "Portugal is just above 110 [physiotherapists per 100,000 inhabitants], but in the National Health Service we are far below, there are only around 1,500 physiotherapists in the SNS.There are only around 1,500 physiotherapists in the National Health Service, while there are 12,000 registered with the Order and around 1,000 more physiotherapists are trained every year," said the President, also speaking to journalists.
At the meeting, where he was accompanied by the 1st Vice-President of the Board, Nuno Cordeiro, and by Olímpio Pereira from the General Council of the Order of Physiotherapists, António Lopes also highlighted the "great willingness" of the government's health team to engage in dialogue and to listen to the prospect of "developing mechanisms to improve access to physiotherapy care" for users, and "especially in critical periods, as soon as possible, when people can effectively enjoy more of the benefits of physiotherapists' intervention".
