3 hours Ago By Anyor Terzungwe
Physiotherapy (PT) is treatment to restore, maintain and make the most of patient mobility, function and wellbeing. The care has many specialties including musculoskeletal, orthopaedic, cardiopulmonary, neurology, endocrinology, sport medicine, geriatrics, paediatrics, women’s health, wound care and electromyography. Physiotherapist practice is in many settings both public and private.
In addition to clinical practice, other aspects of physiotherapy include research, consultation and health education. It is the provision of service to people and population to develop, maintain and restore maximum movement and functional ability throughout the lifespan. It includes the provision of services in circumstances where movement and function are threatened by the processes of aging or that of injury or disease.
The method of physiotherapy sees full and functional movement as at the heart of what it means to be healthy. Physiotherapy is concerned with identifying and maximising movement potentials within the spheres of promotion, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. It involves the interaction between physical clients, families and caregivers in a process of assessing movement potentials and in establishing agreed upon goals and objectives using knowledge and skills unique to physiotherapists.
The physiotherapist’s distinctive view of the body on its movement needs and potentials is central to determining a diagnosis and an intervention strategy and is consistent whatever the setting in which practice is undertaken. These settings will vary in relation to whether physiotherapy is concerned with health promotion, prevention, treatment, or rehabilitation. Its intervention may include: manual handling, movement enhancement, electrotherapy and mechanical agents functional training, provision of aids and appliances, patients related instructions and counselling, documentation and coordination, and communication.
Intervention may also be aimed at prevention of impairments, functional limitations, disability and injury including the promotion and maintenance of health, quality of life, and fitness in all ages and populations. Physiotherapy practice has therefore spread all over the nation in the last 40 years. They are health care professionals who evaluate and manage health conditions for people of all ages.
Typically, individuals consult a physiotherapist for the management of medical problems or other health related conditions that cause pain, limit the ability to move and limit performance of functional activities. Physiotherapists also help prevent health conditions through prevention, restoration of function and through fitness and wellness programmes that achieve health and active lifestyle. A physiotherapist evaluates individuals, diagnoses conditions and develops management plans using treatment techniques that promote the ability to move, reduce pain, restore function and prevent disability.
They provide care in hospitals, clinics, schools, sports facilities and many more. As physiotherapy practice spreads across the nation, in Benue State for instance, physiotherapy development is lagging behind. A state that was created in 1976 before the University of Lagos upgraded its physiotherapy training programme to bachelor degree in 1977 cannot boast of physiotherapy service at primary, secondary, to tertiary health care centres.
The Benue State Government has many primary and secondary health centres but none of them have a department of physiotherapy in their setting hence the need to introduce such facilities is necessary to be able to meet the growing population in this sector, by the government of His Excellency, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, so that the people can access such facilities like her counterpart in other states like Gombe, Yobe, Ondo, Ogun and Akwa Ibom among others.
In 2012, the Benue State University Teaching Hospital started operation with one of the best physiotherapy departments in Nigeria in an edifice erected by the founder of the hospital for patient care, research and training for her five million population. The Department of Physiotherapy, Benue State University Teaching Hospital was of an international standard with a research laboratory, seminar room, and seven offices, two consulting rooms, medical records room, a reception area, two gymnasium, a hydrotherapy pool, nine toilets and three sections for treatment cubicles. The setup itself was healing to patients that came for treatment.
The department was equipped with world-class equipment and was offering quality patient care to the people of the state. It was doing well in the aspect of patient care and was expecting the state university to start training physiotherapists to improve manpower in order to fill the numerous state government hospitals like Ondo, Kaduna and Yobe states respectively who are training physiotherapists in their various universities. But her journey came to an end in December, 2024.
In December, 2024 Benue State University Teaching Hospital closed the best physiotherapy department in Nigeria and the only state government hospital where physiotherapy treatment is accessible and render thousands of patients and millions of people who depend on the facility for treatment stranded, depressed and hopeless which is not the best action for the people of the state. The equipment worth millions of naira was moved to the hydrotherapy pool where rodents, reptiles and insects were having a good day while the patients suffered. The edifice (physiotherapy department) is being converted into a VIP smart clinic.
One can easily access physiotherapy treatment in states like Osun, Ondo, Yobe, Rivers, Gombe, Akwa-Ibom among others in their primary and secondary health centres and they are moving on a fast lane. But in Benue State, physiotherapy treatment is not available in any of the primary and secondary health centres from Sankera to Gbajimba, from Vandeikya to Gboko, from Okpoga to Otukpo, there is no physiotherapy treatment an essential clinical department. So, converting the edifice to a VIP smart clinic and closing accessibility to physiotherapy treatment is a step in the wrong direction.
Converting the structure (physiotherapy department), an essential clinical department in a hospital setting, to a VIP smart clinic is not to the interest of the state and the people. It will only serve the few. The state government can build a new structure as a VIP smart clinic.
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