PhysioUpdate 8th September 2022

Satisfaction rates appear to fall when patients are seen by healthcare professionals such as physiotherapists rather than GPs in general practice settings, according to a study funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

At team led by Igor Francetic, from Centre for Primary Care and Health Services Research, Health Organisation, Policy and Economics Group at the University of Manchester, analysed data from 6,296 general practices in England from 2015 to 2019.

The NIHR said the study was the most detailed one of its type to be published so far. It explores what effect the rising number of physiotherapists, social prescribers, clinical pharmacists, paramedics and physician associates, among others, in GP practices has had on service delivery and patients’ experiences.

Two prominent Australia-based physiotherapists played key roles in a ‘topic working group’ that has produced a national clinical care standard on low back pain (LBP), which was launched earlier this week (1 September).

Peter O’Sullivan and Chris Maher were two of the 15 practitioners in a multidisciplinary group that drew up the 61-page publication for the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care.

Both physiotherapists are renowned internationally for their contributions to the LBP field: the former is professor of musculoskeletal physiotherapy at Curtin University in Perth and a specialist musculoskeletal physiotherapist, while the latter is a professor at the Sydney School of Public Health and founding director of the Institute for Musculoskeletal Health.

Professor O’Sullivan took part in a video discussion to help launch the standard and tweeted afterwards: ‘Watch this and share it widely. It provides a clear roadmap for providing the best care for patients with LBP and some great free resources.’