INTERVIEW
All physiotherapy offices had to close on March 17, and they hope to be able to reopen from May 11. But during the confinement, put in place to fight against the coronavirus epidemic, the physiotherapists continue to care for patients who necessarily need them, as explained on Tuesday in "Without an appointment", Frédéric Srour, president of the ethics committee of the National Council of the order of physiotherapists.
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Home care for patients with cystic fibrosis and respiratory failure
"All patients with cystic fibrosis need daily care," said Frédéric Srour. Just like patients with neurological pathologies who, if they stay too long without physiotherapy, "will decompensate on other problems". Patients with respiratory failure, who have obstructive pulmonary disease, that is to say who are congested at the respiratory level, "cannot remain without their physiotherapy care" either. Physiotherapists therefore continue to care for these patients at home during confinement.
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However, since March 17, people with chronic low back pain have had to put "a little bit on hold this physiotherapy care", he recognizes. But the implementation of teleconsultation at the beginning of the week allowed physiotherapists to gradually implement this care.
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Teleconsultation for patients with low back pain and shoulder or knee problems
What about patients who gave up care during confinement? The consequences of a lack of care could be disastrous for some patients. A fear shared by Frédéric Srour even if he wants to be reassuring because he could observe that physiotherapists, even before telemedicine was implemented, continued to remotely follow their patients with pathologies of the device musculoskeletal like low back pain, shoulder problems, knee problems.
Pathologies for which "active physiotherapy is very important". "For these, the physiotherapists were able to implement these treatments remotely, orient the patients, continue to follow them even on a voluntary basis," he said.
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Finally, "the only patients who are at risk of increased functional impairment are those who had surgery just before, who had shoulder or knee procedures just before the Covid" and that physiotherapists were not necessarily able to to see right away.