Year published: 2017
Summary of CSP evidence
- The use of first contact General Practice physiotherapists provides a cost effective and clinically proven means of improving primary care and reducing the demands on GPs. Adoption at scale would benefit patients, GPs and the taxpayer.
- NHS financial systems need to evolve to support the deployment of General Practice physiotherapists. Whole system savings need to be supported and Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) amended to take account of MSK conditions
- NHS England policies to support widening the general practice team need to be aligned not only to incentives for practices, but across the local health economy - enabling patients to access physiotherapy services at the earliest point, reducing the need for unnecessary, more costly, referral to secondary care
- GP physiotherapy roles are being piloted by 40% of CCGs and have been a success story; these models now need to be scaled up and made mainstream
- Some successful pilots are at risk of coming to an end when short-term pilot funding (e.g. GP Access Fund) ceases; more support is needed from NHSE to help local stakeholders to find solutions to this, so that physiotherapy, as a clinically- and costeffective solution, is fully integrated and sustained within general practice
- The Department of Health (DoH) and Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) are currently considering the potential to allow physiotherapists to issue fit notes to improve MSK health services for patients in primary care; this needs to be introduced as soon as possible to further reduce pressures on GP capacity
- The factors that have contributed to the issues of recruitment and retention of GPs need to be considered in the workforce development and implementation on an expanded General Practice team.
- This includes developing a framework for professional development of physiotherapists in primary care and a model of implementation that supports integration across primary and secondary care and access to peer support.