Physical therapists with prescribing rights - yes or no?

UK physiotherapists have won a long-fought battle to be able to improve their patients’ care by prescribing them medicines without needing a doctor to sign off their decision.

You can read the rest of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy's announcement here.

An issue that will arise a lot of discussion worldwide, for sure. There are a lot of things you can say against this decision, but of course a lot of things you can say to support it too.

For sure, this decision will give Physical Therapists an extra tool in their arsenal, which may be very effectively used for the good of the patient. At the same time, it may reduce the health care system costs, because it will give to patients direct access to a complete health care profession in the cases of simple disorders that need physiotherapy and do not require the physician's involvement.

The major argument against this, in my opinion, is the education and training a Physical Therapy student receives. With most of the educational programs being 3 years of mostly practical knowledge and Physical Therapy techniques, the Physical Therapists do not gain the required knowledge of the human organism. The average Physical Therapy student focuses mainly on the musculoskeletal, the nervous, the cardiovascular and the respiratory system - and very briefly. He/she does not know enough about the immune system, the endocrine system, the gastrointestinal system, and many other things that are of extreme importance in order to deeply understand the amazing human structure, such us embryology, histology, microbiology, pathology, etc. Moreover, there is no obligation for Physical Therapy graduates to work in a hospital or together with a doctor in order to gain experience in prescription.

The human organism is an extremely complex system, that amazes me every time I read about it. Just giving an anti-inflammatory drug or an analgetic may seem a quite simple thing, but I believe it is much more complex. A lot of things need to change in our educational system before this can become true for the good of the human being.

I have a lot of doubts on how inflammation is treated by our medical care system and how disease is perceived. I fear that this decision will make us - human beings - focusing more and more on "killing" the symptoms of our diseases, than on really improving our quality of life.