The president of the Portuguese Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (SPMFR) considered this Monday that placing this specialty at the forefront of health care is a public health priority.
In an interview with the Lusa agency on the eve of World Stroke Daywhich takes place on Tuesday, Renato Nunes stated that the role and importance of the physiatrist is still “very undervalued in healthcare” and asked the Government for more attention to the field of rehabilitation.
“We want to bring the area of rehabilitation to the forefront of healthcare. There is no healthcare or quality of life without rehabilitation. More and more it has to be part of the priorities of the health plans carried out by the Government,” he said.
The director of the Physical Rehabilitation Medicine Service of the Hospital da Prelada (municipality of Porto) also pointed out that “in any rehabilitation activity, the physiatrist has a fundamental role in coordinating the multidisciplinary team.”
“In Portugal there is confusion between rehabilitation and different therapeutic areas. Rehabilitation and physiotherapy are confused, the role of the physiatrist is confused with the role of the technicians. We are all part of the team and there can be no work without evaluation, diagnosis and guidance from the physiatrist,” he stated.
After emphasizing that the SPMFR is not in favor of promoting isolated therapies, Renato Nunes regretted that “there is still difficulty on the part of the population to understand what the role of the physiatrist is.”
“We have to understand that much more than a medical specialty, we are talking about an area of health with international recognition that needs valorization. Physical and rehabilitation medicine is a public health priority“, he stressed.
In July, the Portuguese Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation presented to the guardianship a plan to reorganize the area, in which it stated that access to this care in the country is unequal.
For Lusa, Renato Nunes listed the various measures provided for in the National Rehabilitation Plan, reinforcing that in addition to “the lack of equipment, there is also there is a lack of a good transition of care from the hospital to specialized rehabilitation centerscontinuing care network or community [clínicas convencionadas]”.
“And the community is very lacking in structures and in some areas such as speech therapy and neuropsychology (…). There is a lack of health centers at this level. The agreed clinics are an answer, but many times the response is not quick, timely or differentiated,” he added.
To the set of professions usually related to this area, Renato Nunes added the need for psychologists specialized in neuropsychology and cognitive rehabilitation, nutritionists, social workers and rehabilitation nurses.
Recalling that the World Health Organization has made a strong call to countries to invest in rehabilitation, Renato Nunes considered that, although it is not the only country in Europe that faces this challenge, Portugal still has “a long way to go”.
Stroke is considered the most relevant acute disease in terms of mortality and lifelong disability.
in portugal, Every 23 minutes a person suffers a stroke.. About 25% of cases occur before the age of 65 and an estimated 20,000 people survive a stroke annually.
“People who do not recover adequately can have consequences and implications that will have more weight and more costs for society and the health system. There are needs that would be avoidable if the rehabilitation process were more appropriate. Rehabilitation reduces general health costs,” he said, recalling, among other factors, absenteeism from work.
Source: Observadora
