Self–Referral to Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy Service

Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust's Outpatient Physiotherapy Services are now offering a self-referral option to enable access to their Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy Service, without the patient having to visit their GP.

After a successful pilot with three local GP practices, this option is now being rolled out across the whole Plymouth health community, with the intention of all GP practices participating after 1st April 2015.

Self-referral schemes around the country have shown encouraging benefits to both patients and local health communities. Patients are empowered to seek advice directly and can be seen quicker, thus preventing injuries becoming chronic issues and reducing the need for prescriptions and expensive diagnostic tests. It can also reduce the GP musculoskeletal workload, freeing up appointment slots in their busy clinics.

Nicki Martin, Director of Therapy Services said: “We are delighted to be able to offer this new pathway to our patients. The patient satisfaction with self-referral is high, as it encourages patient engagement with their treatment plus it allows a patient to state exactly what their symptoms are and how it is affecting them.

“We hope ownership from patients will decrease the number of appointments currently being lost when patients fail to attend their booked appointment, without letting the department know. Currently, nearly 400 appointments each month are lost due to patient non-attendance. We would like to decrease this number so we can offer those unwanted appointments to other patients on our waiting list.”

The total number of patients who have used this pathway to date is 658. From November 2014, the option was rolled out to Plympton and Ivybridge areas, followed by the Cumberland area in February 2015.

The self-referral option will be opening up to the rest of the community, with effect from 01 April 2015.Musculoskeletal problems include neck pain, back pain, muscle strains, ligament strains and arthritis, all of which are appropriate for this service.

It is necessary to understand that Self-Referral is not a fast track access to the Physiotherapy Service, these referrals will be categorised on the same basis as the current referrals from GP’s and other sources. But the self-referral route will save patients the time of having to wait and attend a GP appointment before referral.

The self-referral form can be found on our Physiotherapy page http://bit.ly/selfreferral and includes a dropdown menu of participating GP practices.

The form can be emailed to the department directly by clicking the "submit form" button on the bottom of the document or can be printed off and posted to Derriford Physiotherapy Department, Zone E, Level 7, Derriford Hospital, PL6 8DH.