Members of the international physical therapy community can learn a great deal from each other, but must not try to push a monoculture.
This is the message from Jonathon Kruger, the incoming chief executive of the World Confederation of Physical Therapy (WCPT).
Mr Kruger, an Australian physiotherapist who has senior management experience, will take up his post in London on 1 August, told Frontline: ‘Take for example the issue of direct access to physiotherapy.
‘In Australia, we had direct access in the mid-70s, but there are places in the US where that is not the case, and services in the UK where that is not the case.
‘So there are opportunities for different membership organisations to come together and for the WCPT to be a global knowledge hub.’
However, he said that there are challenges to being a global organisation which represents a culturally-diverse membership, with very different experiences of education and research, and ways of delivering physiotherapy.
The WCPT represents countries such as Cambodia and Fiji, each with a physiotherapy membership of fewer than 100, and Japan with about 70,000 physiotherapy members, he said.
He will bring experience of over two decades in senior management, lobbying and advocacy to his WCPT role.
This includes working as a general manager for policy in the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists, and senior roles with the Victorian Government, Australian Medical Association and Australian Physiotherapy Association.
As he was preparing to leave his Melbourne home for a new base in the UK, Mr Kruger said it was a great honour to be leading the WCPT.
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