Did I put my foot in it?

Hi everyone,

I thought I would comment on a situation I encountered on my last placement. It was on a ortho-gerentology rehab ward, in which daily fitness classes were held for selected patients. These patients were allocated every morning in the PT meeting, and the groups were run primarily by the wards PTA.
One of the other PT's wanted one of her patients, diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, to participate in the group. When the PTA heard of this, he was disgusted, and demanded that the patient be removed from the group, or else he would not be a part of it, and that "The Physios's would have to run it themselves." I didn't really know what to make of this comment, thought it was a little uncalled for, and continued with the daily caseload.
When it came time to bring all the patient's into the training room ready for the group, I walked this patient to the group, with his PT. When we approached the room, the PTA came out, stood in front of us, and demanded that we take the patient back to his room, where the PT calmy replied that she wanted the patient to be involved in the class. The PTA then proceeded to comment further, to "take him back as he had walked far enough", and that "he does not want demented patients' in his group", or else I would have to run the group myself.
Eventually, the patient participated in the class, as the PT insisted, and I sat in the group to observe and help out. I was really disgusted and upset by what the PTA had said, particularly as it was directly in front of the patient, and very demeaning for him.
After the class, I felt I had to comment to the PT's on my opinion regarding the PTA's actions, and the fact the the patient had probably, honestly been the best performer in the group!
I noticed after this incident, that although the patient was encouraged to attend the group each day, he refused to attend, preferring to sit in his room.
I guess my question is, should I have gone higher with this, and got a formal complaint made for the PTA, or did I handle it best by just concurring with my supervisor's? Is there more that other people would have done in this situation, or perhaps does anybody agree that he wasn't a suitable particpant and that the PT got it wrong? Has anyone had a similar experience?
What I took away from this was that it is no justification for demeaning patients in this way, but it does happen. It has brought home the importance of respecting patient's rights and dignity, no matter what their diagnosis. It is our responsibilty as health professionals to monitor what goes on, and to act accordingly, and in hindsight, I should have spoken up even more, and made sure that the PTA knew that his behaviour was unacceptable.
In the future, I would have handled the situation in a similar way, however, if I was a qualified Physio, I would definitely have spoken directly to the PTA following the incident to air my thoughts, and gone to the Head of the Department to forward a formal complaint.

Ange.