Standardisation: Physiotherapists demand regulatory body

ISLAMABAD:

Physiotherapists have demanded establishment of a regulatory body to register physiotherapy practitioners in the country and monitor education standards at universities offering degrees in the subject. 

They said lack of a regulatory body was an obstacle to ensuring standards both at educational and professional level.

Pakistan Physical Therapy Association (PPTA) had also prepared a draft law to set up a body and submitted it to the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination. The ministry has in turn sent the draft to provinces for comments and approval.

PPTA Chairman Dr Asghar Khan says that even after much delay the Sindh health department sent back a draft which was “more of an insult” to the idea of having an independent regulatory body for physiotherapists.

Khan said that according to the draft law, no physiotherapist can become head of the proposed Sindh physiotherapy council, nor can physios vote on any decision.

The Punjab government has yet to respond to the proposal.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2015.