Physiotherapists' experiences on assisting physiotherapy users during the COVID‐19 pandemic with lockdown measures in Spain

Abstract

BackgroundPhysiotherapists had faced a new healthcare scenario characterised by the restrictions caused by the COVID‐19 pandemic.PurposeTo explore the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the physiotherapy profession from the perspective of physiotherapists working in the public and private sectors.MethodsQualitative study based on semi‐structured personal interviews with 16 physiotherapists working in public, private, or public‐private partnership sectors in Spain. The data were collected between March and June 2020. Inductive qualitative content analysis was performed.ResultsThe participants (13 women, 3 men; aged 24–44 years) had professional experience in diverse healthcare settings (primary, hospital, home, consultations, insurance companies, associations). Five categories were identified: (1) the impact of lockdown on the health of physiotherapy users; (2) managing the demand for physiotherapy services during lockdown; (3) introducing protocols and protective measures in physiotherapy consultations; (4) changes in therapeutic approaches; and (5) future expectations in the physiotherapy care model. Physiotherapists perceived that lockdown caused a decline in the functionality of people with chronic conditions, together with a reduction in the physiotherapy services. Difficulties in prioritising users considered urgent became evident, and the inclusion of prophylactic measures affected treatment duration differently depending on the care setting and the pandemic prompted the use of telerehabilitation.DiscussionThe pandemic affected the functional status of chronic physiotherapy users and made treatment time, quality of care and triage protocols visible. In physiotherapy, technological barriers need to be solved, such as digital literacy, families without resources, situations of dependency and cultural barriers.

Association of Visiting the Physiotherapist with Mortality in the Spanish General Population: A Population-Based Cohort Study

“…For example, our study found that people with low incomes visited the physiotherapist less than people with high incomes. This might be due to the saturation of the public health system and the limitation of paying for a private service [6]. Removing any inappropriate variation is necessary to improve the quality of physiotherapy care [27], and, for this, factors associated with not receiving physiotherapeutic care first need to be identified, as we have explored in the present study, in order to take steps in this regard and develop new strategies to improve access to this service.…”

“…The Spanish public health system has just over 5000 physiotherapists, a ratio of 0.1 per 1000 inhabitants, far below the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) of 1 physiotherapist per 1000 inhabitants [5]. Approximately 90% of Spanish physiotherapists work in the private sector, representing a ratio of 0.9/1000 inhabitants [6]. The Spanish public physiotherapy service has long waiting lists, and private sector interventions are not refunded by the public system.…”