Shalamar Institute of Health Sciences
“Recovery is indeed a manifestation of the law of nature, efforts of patient and guidance from a physical therapist or rehabilitation specialist.”
― Joerg Teichmann
Importance of Physical Therapy
Physiotherapy increases a patient’s mobility, function, and general health. Through physical rehabilitation, injury prevention, and health and fitness, physiotherapy improves the quality of life of many patients. A physiotherapist can help you get on track to a pain-free life, which is necessary to engage in your favorite physical activities and ward off many chronic illnesses.
However, even while surgery and medication are often recommended as the best treatments for specific ailments, there are other circumstances when physiotherapy can be just as successful. For example, lower back pain, evidence suggests that this problem is usually overtreated with imaging, prescription medications, and procedures, while early physical therapy can prove itself a very economical course of action.
History of the Physiotherapy
Hippocrates and Galen, two physicians, are thought to have introduced the science of physiotherapy as early as 400 BC when they encouraged the use of hydrotherapy, massage, and manual therapy techniques to treat their patients. However, during the First World War, physiotherapy became institutionalized, and women were hired to work with soldiers, offering physical treatment to assist repair the wounds they had sustained.
The World Health Organization (WHO) helped the Federal Government, Ministry of Health & Social Welfare build the school of physiotherapy in 1956 in Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center. To match the international standard, the four-year BSPT program was recently upgraded to a five-year DPT (Doctor of Physiotherapy) program in 2008.
Problems with Physiotherapy in Pakistan
The problem with physiotherapy in Pakistan is that although physical therapy has been practiced for almost 60 years, there is still no regulatory body for the oversight of physiotherapy degree programs and the registration of physiotherapists.
Moreover, there is no set meritocracy when admitting students to Physiotherapy programs in universities all around Pakistan.
Many educational institutions are not connected to hospitals, which prevent students from participating in clinical training or house jobs. As a result, they eventually join the hospital with degrees but no relevant work experience.
If such a body is created, it will make sure that physiotherapy schools uphold their educational standards and that only licensed professionals are permitted to practice.
The government must take special action to save this profession because the situation is getting worse by the hour. The federal and provincial governments should generate jobs. In addition to the government, I implore the media and civil society to emphasize the value and necessity of physiotherapy for the nation.