John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State and other Members of the House will have received many representations on protecting the public by protecting the titles of "physiotherapist" and "physical therapist" in one register under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act. I understand the Minister for Health will make a final decision on the matter in the coming weeks. The proposal has been recommended to him by the State regulator, the Physiotherapists Registration Board, and is also strongly supported by the Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists, the professional body for physiotherapists-physical therapists in Ireland, which has more than 3,300 members. Support for the protection of both titles has come from many reputable bodies, including the Irish Medical Organisation; the Irish Hospital Consultants Association; the Irish College of General Practitioners; the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland; and the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland; Trinity College Dublin and the Univeristy of Limerick; the deans of medical facilities; the Irish Patients Association; IMPACT; the Federation of Voluntary Bodies; regulatory bodies around the world, including Canada, America, New Zealand, Australia and, importantly, the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland; and the World Confederation for Physical Therapy, the world professional body, where the two titles are interchangeable and considered the sole preserve of the physiotherapy profession.

The strong view is that the implementation of this proposal would maximise protection and eliminate the current widespread public confusion. The Health and Social Care Professional Act sets out to protect the titles of 14 health professionals and the title of "physiotherapist" is protected. The Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists believes it is imperative, for a number of valid and compelling reasons that I will outline, a second title of "physical therapist" also gains protection under the legislation.

In the United Kingdom and internationally the title "physical therapist" is synonymous with "physiotherapist" and the titles are, therefore, interchangeable. The difficulty is that a group of people in Ireland have adopted the title "physical therapist". While this group enters into practice after the completion of short part-time courses, varying in length from six to 15 months to three years, physiotherapists, on the other hand, undertake a full-time four-year professional university degree course, with provision for a postgraduate follow-up degree. This leads to considerable confusion since neither the public sports organisations nor many other individuals and groups related to health professions in the country are aware of the fact that physiotherapists and physical therapists and the level of services provided by each are completely different.

This is not a livelihood issue or about having to stop practising, rather it is about changing the title in order that physical therapists and physiotherapists would mean the same and to take away the confusion caused for the public. The titles mean the same all over the world except in Ireland. It is time that they also mean the same here.

See this speech in context