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How does self-referral support person centred care?

Phoebe Munson, Service Improvement Lead for Sussex MSK Partnership, explains what this means for person-centred care and how award-winning partnership working is unlocking wider innovation in MSK services.

Following the Sussex MSK Partnership’s successful roll-out of Physiotherapy self-referral in 2017 we have continued to expand access for patients across the service.  As it stands you can currently self-refer for Physiotherapy in Brighton & Hove, Crawley, Horsham and Mid-Sussex.   You can also refer for Hand & Wrist ICATS in Brighton & Hove and Mid-Sussex and all other MSK conditions in Crawley and Horsham. 

Self-referral means that people are able to self-refer at any time of day, allowing them to access the service around their busy lives.

What does this mean for person-centred care?

People can access self-referral at any time of day.  Anyone who is 17 or older and are registered at a practice in Brighton & Hove, Crawley, Horsham and Mid-Sussex, will be able to self-refer into our hand and wrist physiotherapy service.

This is a key step in placing patients at the heart of their care.  By opening up the entry point for referral we aim to not only ease access for people but also save GP time and enable people to see a clinician much sooner if need be.

We believe that people are the experts in their own body and how they feel. We have found that when people self-refer to physiotherapy, we are able to understand their needs much more fully and are able to get them to the right service first time. If someone is not suitable for our community service we will also be able to redirect them to the right service for them, wherever possible supporting them, without the need for them to go back to their GP.

What people say about self-referral

“I was pleasantly surprised by the ease with which I made my self-referral and the speed with which I received my consultation.”

 “I have found this new self-referral system excellent and cannot offer any suggestions for improvement.”

Award-winning partnership working

Introducing self-referral to our community services would not have been possible without the support of our colleagues in the physiotherapy teams.  The Physiotherapy team in Horsham and Crawley have won the SCFT Quality Improvement Award (2017) for their work on self-referral.

One of the benefits to the Sussex MSK Partnerships model of partnership working is that we are able to easily transfer learning from one part of the healthcare system and introduce it to another.  This means more patients benefit from each innovation we introduce.

You can find out more information on Self-Referral, including how to refer by clicking here.

If you would like to hear more about what self-referral means for innovation in MSK services, you can listen to Sally York (Physiotherapy Lead for SMSKP) speak about it in our podcast: “Self-referral to Physiotherapy Services in Sussex” on Latest.

This blog was originally posted on Here’s Website.

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