Fysioterapeuten nr. 9 - 2015

10 / 68

10 FYSIOTERAPEUTEN 9/15
Abstract
n Purpose: The article discusses how municipally employed physiotherapists and
private practicing physiotherapists in Finnmark’s municipalities describe and reason
about prioritization and allocation of tasks. The objective of the study was to gain
more knowledge about content and tradeoffs in physiotherapy services and see if
professional practice and development are in line with current health policies.
n Method: The study is based on five focus group interviews with physiotherapists
(n=21).
n Findings: The participants perceived municipal resources for physiotherapy as insuf-
ficient, and expressed that they had to perform demanding prioritizations with limi-
ted support from the local authorities. Due to long distances to travel, patients who
needed home consultations were in danger of not getting physiotherapy. Traditional
differences between private practitioners and municipally employed physiotherapists
characterized prioritization and distribution of patient groups and tasks. In municipa-
lities with fewer physiotherapists and a wider range of tasks, the differences were
less apparent. Municipally employed physiotherapists were given new tasks without
an increase in capacity in the physiotherapy services, and distributed their resources
on more patients than professionally desirable.
n Conclusion: Limited service capacity, variations in affiliation (private practicing or
municipally employed) and prioritizations, plus long distances, causes differences in
provided physiotherapy services depending on place of residence. This emphasizes
the importance of municipalities attending to their overall responsibility for physio-
therapy services.
n Key words: physiotherapy, primary health care, rural health services, health priori-
ties.
Morten Nikolaisen,
specialist in neurolo-
gical physiotherapy
(MNFF), MSc, PT, De-
partment of Rehabilita-
tion, Finnmark Hospital
Trust (Kirkenes).
Cathrine Arntzen, associate professor,
ph.d., Department of Health and Care Scien-
ces, UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
Siri Moe, associate professor, dr. philos,
Department of Health and Care Sciences,
UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
This scientific article is peer reviewed by
the Fysioterapeuten’s guidelines, and was
accepted 12.03.2014. Norwegian Social
Science Data Services (NSD) approved this
study. No conflicts of interest stated.
This paper was first published in Norwe-
gian, Fysioterapeuten 1/2015.
The English version was published online
19.08.2015
og-vitenskap).
Physiotherapy and priority setting
A Focus Group Study in Municipalities in Finnmark, Norway
SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE
For fulltext article in English visit
fag