EXPERIENCE OF PALESTINIAN PHYSIOTHERAPY ASSOCIATION IN COVID19 EPIDEMIC

A. Al Najjar1
1Palestinian Physiotherapy Association, Gaza, Palestine

Background: The Covid 19 pandemic is one of the biggest challenges that health systems have faced in the recent history due to many factors, the most important of which is the ambiguity that still surrounds the nature of the spread of the virus and its continuous mutation to become a major challenge to the response and containment of health systems to it, and this was clear in the case of the confusion that the health sectors have witnessed in the preventive and medical procedures and interventions that are still under research  to limit the spread of this pandemic and control it.

Purpose: This pandemic is considered the first experience not only for the Palestinian Physiotherapy Syndicate, but by following up on the sites of world physiotherapy confederation , it is considered the first global experience for physical therapy unions and bodies, which affected the state of preparedness to deal with this epidemic as the role of physical therapy is still unclear  to deal with cases.
The purpose of this study is to highlight the experience of Palestinian physiotherapy association and share this experience with the world and physical therapy bodies .

Methods:
  1. Forming a crisis committee to monitor the  developments of the epidemic , its effects on the profession, and the mechanisms for dealing with it
  2. Communicate with service providers in the government and private sectors to coordinate and exchange information and experiences.
  3. Educating colleagues working in the health sector about the prevention and safety measures that must be followed in light of this pandemic.
  4. Making advocacy campaign on the decision-makers to continue providing physiotherapy services in the health sector and not to stopping the service
  5. Publishing evident  scientific materials about the role of physical therapy in the Covid 19 pandemic on the Syndicate's media platforms
  6. Organizing a workshop with service providers and partners to discuss strategies for future interventions and adaptation to the pandemic
  7. Preparing a list of volunteers to work in times of emergency and supporting colleagues in the health sector
  8. Raising community awareness of safety procedures in public places through periodic publications on social networking sites

Results:
  1. Restart physiotherapy services in inpatient department in major hospital during the epidemic
  2. formulating protocol to deal with covid19 cases in the ICU
  3. launching telehealth program in ministry of health and UNRWA 

Conclusion(s):
  1. Preparing a special contingency plan to define the role of physical therapy in epidemic  
  2.  Training workers in the health sector on preventive measures and methods of dealing with suspected and infected cases
  3. Enhancing the principle of providing electronic services in times of emergency ( telehealth )
  4. Raise the level of coordination between service providers and the relevant authorities to adopt a unified strategy to confront epidemic
  5. Organizing scientific days and seminars to follow up on the latest scientific developments about the role of physical therapy in epidemic  and to exchange experiences with physiotherapy bodies in the world
  6. Integration of physiotherapy into emergency committees and teams
  7.  Training of physiotherapy graduates on community awareness mechanisms

Implications: PHYSIOTHERAPY have a major role on outbreaks 

Funding, acknowledgements: no funding 

Keywords: epidemic - physiotherapy - telehealth

Topic: COVID-19

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes
Institution: Palestinian Physiotherapy Association
Committee: Dr/walid hamdan - Dr/ suad ghaben
Ethics number: 34


All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.

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