very good comment dear yelufem, i think you hit straight through the heart!! Well, here is the thing, our physio natianal association has done many efforts for the price raising at least as far as concerned the fees of public health funds (8-12 euros currently, see me previous post for more information)....But, there has not been done so much to PROMOTE the profession to public. Even if our curriculum is 4 years, that means equivalent with a university, and i can say it has a solid educational component, people are still uninformed about our role as health providers. As a result, public hospitals do not employ so many physios as they should be (means that there are very few vacancies for permanent jobs), many of these hospitals has only 1 or 2 physios as staff to provide services in many clinics,like orthopedic and so on (this is far outrageous!!!!). Consequently people hospitalized in many institutions cannot enjoy the real VALUE of our job, and this has a major negative impact to the profession (for example people are reluctant to pay a high-priced physio session in an outpatient clinic,as they dont think physical therapy can make any difference to their problem!).
Anyway, i am really glad to hear that in so-called "thirld world" countries (for me, this is an entirely MYTH, the "third world" was a term used by some high class beaurocrats in the past with intenton to stratify the whole globe, bringing discrimination and hate among people, each country by its own makes its own fate and progress through ages. However, if you come visit our beloved Greece, you will certainly consider it a thirld world country, because of its organization as a state,sometimes it makes you sick!) physical therapy is deemed a high-prestige profession. I wish you to keep it on like this way in the future!
Cheers