Physiotherapists and General Practitioners attitudes towards 'Physio Direct' phone based musculoskeletal Physiotherapy services: a national survey.

OBJECTIVES

Physiotherapy phone based, "Physio Direct" (PD) musculoskeletal triage and treat services are a relatively new phenomena. This study explored Physiotherapist and GP attitudes towards PD services.

DESIGN

Online national survey via cascade e-mail initiated by study leads.

PARTICIPANTS

488 Physiotherapists and 68 GPs completed the survey.

OUTCOME MEASURES

The survey asked three negatively worded and three positively worded Likert scale questions regarding PD services. It also collected demographic data and more global attitudes including a version of the friends and family test.

RESULTS

Overall both Physiotherapists and GP's have positive attitudes towards PD services. There was global agreement that PD triage was a good idea but in both groups the majority of respondents who expressed a definite opinion thought that patients would still eventually need to be seen face to face. The vast majority of all respondents also thought patients should be given a choice about first accessing PD services. Physiotherapists with experience of PD services had more positive and less negative attitudes than those without experience. More detailed results are discussed.

CONCLUSIONS

Relevant clinical stakeholders have generally positive attitudes towards PD services, but more so when they have experience of them. Counter to research findings significant proportions of respondents believe patients accessing PD services will still need to be seen face to face. The significant majority of respondents believe patients should be given a choice whether they access PD services in the first instance or not.