You Are Not Covered!

Staffordshire

Swansea

Miss K M Withington 8 4 Scott. Lidge Road Longport Stoke on Trent Staffs ST6 4NH

Mr A Maggs 1892 Rhodfar Dyrw Parc Gwernfadog Morriston Swansea SA6 6SS

Stockport

Mrs P A Richardson Downstream 55 Broadtown Nr Swindon Wiltshire SN4 7RG

Suffolk

Mrs F C Colyer 5 4 Auckland Road Tunbridge Wells Kent TN1 2HS

Warwickshire

Swindon

Miss S Wagstaff 57 Rossett Avenue Timperley, Altrincham Cheshire WA15 6EU

Tunbridge Wells and District

Mrs H M Tudge 101 Redgside Avenue Coundon Coventry CV6 1BS

Sutton and Epsom

Teesside and District

Mrs C Hall 56 Ferndale Road 8 anst e ad Surrey SM7 2EX

West Yorkshire

Mrs A L Lamb 14 Cornfield Garth Peterlee County Durham SR8 5TN

You Are Not Covered! MADAM - I was rather surprised to hear from several delegates at the Clinical Interest Group conference recently, that they have treated animals in their careers as Chartered physiotherapists. As PRO for the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Animal Therapy, I must point out to all members of the CSP that unless they are fully paid up members of ACPAT they will have no insurance cover for treating animals. It is also against the law to treat an animal without permission from the veterinary surgeon who is in charge of the case, as this is a contravention of the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966.

Miss Gillian Brydson Flat 1, Piccadilly Bradford Road Wakefield West Yorkshire WF1 6AH

Physiotherapy for animals is sometimes met with a certain amount of amusement, but it would be less than amusing if an irate owner sued for malpractice someone with no insurance cover. I can assure members they are more likely to be sued for damaging a man's best horse than for damaging his wife!!! ACPAT is currently trying to deal with a small number of unqualified people who have given 'physiotherapists, a bad name at the Royal College of Veterinary Science, so please don't make our campaigning any harder by ignoring the rules of professional conduct ACPAT members work by. If you want to treat animals, please join ACPAT. JO SHOLL-EVANS MCSP Bristol

How Do You Think about Physiotherapy? MADAM - In her 'Personal View' (April, page 197) Dr Parry argues that due to the diverse nature of treatment methods, research in physiotherapy inevitably takes different forms, and no one form of research is better than another; rather that the best form of research for a particular study should be employed. This is true for research in most professions. However, the author proceeds to suggest that the peer review process inhibits publication of articles because it is prejudiced against it, since 'the style of inquiry does not conform to some preferred form', and therefore in certain situations this process should be undermined. The only pre-requisites for publication of an article should be that it is relevant, accurate, confirms or questions established concepts, or opens new areas for investigation. The work must be based on a solid

Wsiotherapy, June 1990, vol76,

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Mrs S L Hulme 7 9 Kingston Avenue off Bilford Road Worcester WR3 8PN

Miss J A Randall Physiotherapy Department Frimley Park Hospital Frimley, Camberley Surrey

Mrs H J Gowland 5 Home Street Broughty Ferry Dundee DD5 1DX

knowledge base, with evidence to back up its conclusions. To this end a peer review process is essential in weeding out inaccurate articles, that are poorly researched and poorly presented. Revision of 'flawed' papers must be insisted on, then and only then should they be published. The peer review procedure is the only way we can ensure communication of accurate research and information, with each article judged on its own merits and not the form of inquiry. Dr Parry also seems to intimate that it is the Journal's opposition to publication of the 'preferred' form of article that is preventing the inclusion of Physiotherapy in lndex Medicus. However, it is the general quality and accuracy of articles published, rather than their form, that is the main objection to its inclusion. If an improvement in the quality of articles in the Journal brings about

Miss K J Salt Flat 1 55 Tettenhall Road Wolverhampton West Midlands WV3 9NB

Worcester and District

West Surrey

Tayside

Miss K E Yeates Physiotherapy Department lpswich Hospital Heath Road, lpswich Suffolk

Wolverhampton

Worthing

Mrs J Y Baumann 5 0 St Elmo Road Worthing West Sussex BN14 7EH

York

Mrs A M Knowles 57 Middlecroft Drive Strensall York YO3 5VP

Ultrasound Record MADAM - As part of our work in electrotherapy research we are anxious to find some hospital departments who would be willing to keep notes of their use of ultrasound over an eight-week period. The task would not be too onerous and it is most important to have information about the dosages that are commonly used and their frequency and duration. Anyone interested to help is asked t o contact me at the address below. CECILY PARTRIDGE PhD FCSP Centre for Physiotherapy Research King's College London Strand London WC2R 2LS its inclusion in lndex Medicus, then we have all gained. If it does not, then at least as a profession we can be confident we have a Journal that publishes relevant, accurate information. Physiotherapists will be pleased to contribute to such a publication, which will represent the advances made by us as a self-assessing, progressive profession. The 'disservice to physiotherapy, that Dr Parry talks of will come from a Journal Committee that fails to safeguard, or intentionally undermines, a rigorous peer review process, publishes its own esoteric selection of articles, under the guise of physiotherapy research being somehow exceptional to the rules, and thus exposing us to publication of 'flawed' articles. This will have the effect of denigrating the profession both in our own eyes and in those of fellow professions, and will alienate the very people that the Journal should be attracting to contribute to it. MICHAEL V HURLEY MCSP Physiotherapy Group King's College London

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