The New Brunswick Physiotherapy Association says they are “greatly disappointed” after the province turned down a request allowing practitioners to order their own imaging tests.
“We’re not doing a service to the population by not allowing this,” said Annie Boudreau, a board member with the association.
Right now if a physiotherapist believes a patient needs an MRI or an x-ray, that patient must see their primary health-care provider, who can then order the necessary tests. Should they not have a primary care provider, they’re likely left to seek care in the emergency room.
Boudreau says allowing the change would free up primary care providers to take more appointments, as well as reduce non-urgent ER visits.
“In some areas of the province there’s no clinics that take appointments so if you need an x-ray, you end up in the emergency room. We all know our emergency rooms are overloaded, over-capacity right now,” she said.
The association wrote to the province 10 months ago requesting the change, providing a number of studies from other jurisdictions that have already allowed physios to order their own tests. Boudreau said the association only heard back after they reached out again recently and were told that the idea required further study.
“We want to help our patients, that’s what we really want, and we want to help the health-care system function better,” she said.
“It has to be rethought, it can’t work the way it’s working, the way it has always been working.”
Nova Scotia recently expanded physiotherapists’ scope of practice to allow them to order imaging tests. In the press release announcing the change, NB Health cites the number of unnecessary primary care appointments as a primary reason.
“This change will reduce unnecessary demands on family physicians, nurse practitioners, and emergency departments, and save patients and physiotherapists time,” health and wellness minister Michelle Thompson said in the statement.
Dr. Paula Keating, the president of New Brunswick Medical Society, says she believes that all practitioners should be able to practice to their full scope, but she understands why the province is moving with some caution.
“They need to take some time to analyze the broader implications of a broader group of health-care providers ordering imaging tests,” she said.
However, Keating says that the best solution would be to accelerate the creation of collaborative care clinics, allowing a number of different practitioners to work under the same roof.
“Ideally this work should be done in a team-based care model where all providers are working to their full scope and sharing resources and collaborating together in the best interest of patient care,” she said.
Health Minister Bruce Fitch was not made available for an interview. In a statement the department says they studying the idea.