Experienced physiotherapists as gatekeepers to hospital orthopaedic outpatient care!

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Oldmeadow LB et al (2007) investigated the impact, quality and acceptability of a musculoskeletal screening clinic provided by physiotherapists for patients referred to the outpatient orthopaedic department at a major metropolitan hospital. 52 patients with non-urgent musculoskeletal conditions at the Northern Hospital (a tertiary teaching hospital in outer Melbourne) were assessed by one of two physiotherapists with postgraduate qualifications and subsequently by an orthopaedic surgeon between 29 November 2005 and 6 June 2006.

They concluded nearly two-thirds of patients with non-urgent musculoskeletal conditions referred by their GPs to one public outpatient orthopaedic department did not need to see a surgeon at the time of referral, and were appropriately assessed and managed by experienced, qualified physiotherapists.

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