Senior researcher Healthcare System and Governance
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Physiotherapy in the Netherlands: an overview.
Curfs, E.C., Groenewegen, P.P. Physiotherapy in the Netherlands: an overview. Physiotherapy Practice: 1986, 2, p. 132-137.
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The number of physiotherapists is relatively high in the Netherlands, one for every 1350 people in 1981 and their number has been rising steadily ever since. About two thirds of them are working in private practice; they get their patients through referrals either from family physicians (± 80%) or medical specialists (20%). In principle patients may only consult a physiotherapist after being referred, but in day to day practice direct contacts take place to some degree. There are around 20 schools of physiotherapy (vocational colleges; physiotherapy is not an academical study in the Netherlands) and together they deliver more than 1000 new physiotherapists each year. The growing number of unemployed physiotherapists is a big problem nowadays, resulting in emigration of Dutch physiotherapists to other EEC-countries and third world countries. Apart from the social problem of unemployment there are problems that relate to the content of physiotherapy itself. Growing costs of expenditures per patient for physiotherapy lead to critical questions as to the therapeutical effects of physiotherapy and the quality of care. (aut. ref.)
The number of physiotherapists is relatively high in the Netherlands, one for every 1350 people in 1981 and their number has been rising steadily ever since. About two thirds of them are working in private practice; they get their patients through referrals either from family physicians (± 80%) or medical specialists (20%). In principle patients may only consult a physiotherapist after being referred, but in day to day practice direct contacts take place to some degree. There are around 20 schools of physiotherapy (vocational colleges; physiotherapy is not an academical study in the Netherlands) and together they deliver more than 1000 new physiotherapists each year. The growing number of unemployed physiotherapists is a big problem nowadays, resulting in emigration of Dutch physiotherapists to other EEC-countries and third world countries. Apart from the social problem of unemployment there are problems that relate to the content of physiotherapy itself. Growing costs of expenditures per patient for physiotherapy lead to critical questions as to the therapeutical effects of physiotherapy and the quality of care. (aut. ref.)