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PAGE 13

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REPRESENTATIVES OF private practice North Shore
physiotherapists are scheduled to meet May 5 with provin-
cial Health Minister Peter Dueck to register their opposition

to the proposed $5
physiotherapy treatments.

North Shore Private Practice
Physiotherapists (NSPP)
spokesman Michael White said the
minister will be presented with a
letter outlining the inequities of the
surcharge, which was announced
in the March 19 provincial budget,
and the hardships it will inflict on
North Shore physiotherapists when
it comes into effect July 1.

But the surcharge, he said, will
also have a direct impact on area
patients.

“The fee will especially affect
those seniors in outlying areas of
the North Shore who cannot af-
ford the surcharge,’’ he said.

Those patients, White said, will
be forced to either postpone
treatment or arrange transporta-
tion to and from Lions Gate Hos-
pital rather than use private prac-
tice physiotherapists in their area.

Administrative director for
LGH's rehabilitation services
Madge Wiesman said Wednesday
the hospital currently has a two to
three-week waiting period for
physiotherapy treatment.

Once the surcharge comes into
effect, she said she anticipates
more doctors will refer those
physiotherapy patients unable to
afford the surcharge to the hospi-
tal and thereby increase both the
current waiting period and the
number of treatments needed by
patients.

“The longer patients are on the
waiting list, che more chronic their
condition becomes,’’ Wiesman
said.

The NSPP represents 12 local
private physiotherapy practices
and began lobbying Dueck for a
meeting after numerous member
concerns were raised aver Che sur-

surcharge on

private practice

By TIMOTHY RENSHAW
News Reporter

In its letter to Dueck, the NSPP
questions the equity of a recent
$2.80 fee-schedule increase granted
provincial chiropracters, which
allows them to charge $14 instead
of $11.20 per visit. The increase is
retroactive to July 1, 1986.

Physiotherapists were offered a
per visit increase of $1.05, from
$11.20 to $12.25, with no retroac-
tivity.

The $5 per visit surcharge will be
applied to treatments given by chi-
ropractors, podiatrists, massage
therapists, naturopathic services
and physiotherapists in private
practice.

But White said physiotherapists
were being unfairly- penalized
because, unlike the other groups,
the practices of physiotherapists
working outside institutions were
filled exclusively through doctor
referral and were therefore in the
medical mainstream.

Dueck has said the surcharge
was necessary to slow the growing
use of the various medical services
which ministry figures show has
increased by 72 per cent over the
past four years.

But North Shore Orthopaedic &
Sports Therapy Clinic
physiotherapist Greg Cassap said,
“The surcharge will provide a
small savings for the government
and a large problem for us.””

Because the $5 fee must be col-
lected by the private sector, Cassap
said the expense of that collection
will have to be borne by
physiotherapists. He estimated
paperwork for private
physiotherapisis would  conse-
quently increase by 30 per cent,