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Chronic back trouble shouldn't require constant rereferrals ...

Posted By Pierre

"Chronic back trouble shouldn't require constant rereferrals for physio"

About: Community physiotherapy / Dereham physiotherapy clinic Norfolk PCT

(as the patient),

I've had back trouble for most of my working life and have had various treatments over the years. I've been told that it is chronic and will only get worse and I was recently referred to Dereham Hospital for physio. I was helped on 4 visits but was told that was all they could do unless I got another referral from my GP. It would be much more beneficial to me if I could get treatment every month or 6 weeks to keep me more mobile or if I could refer myself to the physiotherapist when I was having more severe symptoms. This would be more cost effective for the NHS too if it avoids surgery. It takes so long to go from a visit to the GP to actually getting some help.

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Responses

Response from Alison Tankard, Team Lead MSK Physio, South, Dereham, Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust 11 years ago
Alison Tankard
Team Lead MSK Physio, South, Dereham,
Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust

Submitted on 04/04/2013 at 18:17
Published on Care Opinion on 05/04/2013 at 09:40

Dear Pierre

Thank you for taking the time and trouble in sharing your thoughts about improvements that could be made to our MSK service at Dereham Hospital.I do recognise your frustration that at present you can only access the service through referral from your G.P or another health care professional.Self referral into the service is an area that we are considering and depending on the agreement of our referrers would like to establish in the future.In the meantime,our waiting times have reduced considerably over the last 6 months and we can offer an appointment within 3-4 weeks of receiving your referral which should make access more acceptable

kind regards

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by Pierre (the patient)

Thanks for replying. Good to know that waiting times have been reduced but self referral would be even better if patients could be seen quickly.

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