title: Referral to physiotherapy as part of a general practitioner's management of back pain.
abstract: The aim of this survey was to investigate how general practitioners (GPs) manage their back pain patients and if they refer them for physiotherapy. The research instrument was a self-administered postal questionnaire. This was sent to 580 GPs, one quarter of the GPs in the Republic of Ireland. Two hundred and ninety three questionnaires (n=293)were returned, which constituted a 50.5% response rate. Two hundred and sixty one questionnaires (n=261) were usable. The main findings of the study were that the respondents consider that physiotherapy has a major role in the management of back pain. However there was limited availability of physiotherapy for the GPs' public patients. One hundred and thirteen GPs (over 43% of respondents) have referred back pain patients to alternative practitioners for manipulation. One hundred and forty four respondents (52%) believe that physiotherapists should not treat back pain patients without the patient first consulting their doctor.
authors.affiliation: Abbey House Medical Centre, Navan, Co Meath.
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Cremin
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Finn
mesh_terms: D001416:Back Pain / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005194:Family Practice; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D026761:Physical Therapy Specialty; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires