Vice-Chancellor, Balyesa Medical University, Professor Ebitimitula Etebu has charged physiotherapists in Nigeria to come up urgently with solutions to ensure individuals infected with COVID-19 gets the needed physiotherapy service they need for their recovery.
Professor Etebu, who chaired the opening of the fourth Association of Clinical and Academic Physiotherapists of Nigeria (ACAPN) virtual conference, with the theme “Telephysiotherapy: Expanding the Scope of Physiotherapy practice in Nigeria, said infected patients with COVID-19 were very much in need of physiotherapy service, especially respiratory physiotherapy.
He urged the expansion of physiotherapy scope by adopting tele-physiotherapy since it is proven in different parts of the world as effective in providing care for people even in remote areas of the country since its use in Nigeria is still low due to limiting factors such as training of physiotherapists and patients’ literacy needs and finances.
Dr Olajide Adebola, the Founder of the Society for Telemedicine and eHealth in Nigeria (SfTeHiN), in a keynote address at the conference, said digital health in physiotherapy can ensure that vulnerable and the poor unreachable can be reached in the remotest part of the country with physiotherapy.
He, noting a shortage of physiotherapists and most of the facilities with physiotherapists are in the urban areas, said digital health in physiotherapy will also assure people have access to physiotherapy services, without travelling time and waiting time.
According to Dr Adebola “physiotherapists have a role to play in this area, particularly in restoring those who have chronic illnesses back to normal mobility and functions, and targeting mobile devices. You follow up your clients, again bringing care at the comfort of the consumers in our services.”
He declared that power and internet services were the biggest challenges to digital health physiotherapy but ensuring everybody can benefit from physiotherapy services will also require increased inclusion of more services in physiotherapy under the health insurance scheme.
Registrar, Medical Rehabilitation Therapy Board (MRTB), Dr Funke Akanle stated that with COVID-19 pandemic, physiotherapy professionals must also be proactive in their practice while reducing the possibilities of transmission of the infection but ensuring that the access to rehabilitative care is upheld.
Dr Akanle, making a case for telerehabilitation, said it will ensure access to health for persons living with disabilities, especially considering the bottlenecks involved in accessing services in rehabilitation centres which are not evenly spread across the country.
ACAPN’s President, Professor Rufus Adedoyin stated that telerehabilitation is critical to expanding the scope of physiotherapy in Nigeria, including enhancing the quality of life of a patient, in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic.
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