Should your GP be an osteopath?: Patients’ views of an osteopathy clinic based in primary care
Section snippets
What do we know?
Patients with spinal pain are more satisfied with the care received from osteopaths and chiropractors, than from general practitioners (GPs). Their attitude to a GP providing an osteopathy service is unknown.
What does this paper add?
A GP run osteopathy clinic was perceived to provide additional physical and psychological benefit. GP consultations might be improved by adopting some features from the osteopathic consultation.
Method
Data were obtained by a short questionnaire followed by a semi-structured interview with a sample of both trial participants and patients registered with the index practice. For trial participants, all data were collected after the trial process was completed, and complemented the main trial design. Local research ethics committee approval was obtained.
Sample description
The sample consisted of 5 men and 15 women, aged from 29 to 88 years; 10 were in paid employment or students, 10 were unemployed or retired; 12 were from the index practice, 8 were trial participants from neighbouring practices. Four of the trial participants were in the usual GP care arm of the trial, and together with four patients registered with the index practice had not attended the osteopathy clinic. Most of these had experienced osteopathic treatment elsewhere; only one had never
Discussion
Participants had accessed a wide variety of treatments for their spinal pain including medical and complementary therapies. Although traditional GP skills were valued, usual GP care for spinal pain was perceived as limited, ineffective and disheartening. Osteopathy was widely thought to benefit spinal pain. Osteopathic treatment was attractive because it did not involve drug treatment, but did have side effects. Side effects included short-term pain and discomfort, and some found the treatment
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all of the participants, their referring GPs and their practice teams, in particular the partners and staff of the Llanfairfechan/Penmaenmawr practice, and Roisin Pill for early advice about the study. This study was conducted by JW as part of her MSc in Health Service Management with the University of Wales College of Medicine. It was supported by the all Wales primary care research network (CAPRICORN), which receives funding from the Welsh Assembly Government.
References (32)
- et al.
Patients’ satisfaction with osteopathic and GP management of low back pain in the same surgery
Complement Ther Med
(2000) - et al.
Talking about the pain: a patient-centred study of low back pain in primary care
Soc Sci Med
(1995) Back pain and the resolution of diagnostic uncertainty in illness narratives
Soc Sci Med
(2003)- McCormick A, Fleming D, Charlton J. Morbidity statistics from general practice. In: 4th national study 1991–1992, RCGP,...
- et al.
Access to complementary medicine via general practice
BJGP
(2001) - et al.
Reasons for repeated medical visits among patients with chronic back pain
J Gen Intern Med
(1998) - et al.
Patterns and perceptions of care for treatment of back and neck pain: results of a national survey
Spine
(2003) - et al.
Patient satisfaction with medical care for low back pain
Spine
(1986) - et al.
Patient evaluation of low back pain care from family physicians and chiropractors
West J Med
(1989) - et al.
General practice perceptions of low back pain patients
Family Pract
(1995)
The benefits of back pain
Family Pract
Barriers to patient information provision in primary care: patients’ and general practitioners’ experiences and expectations of information for low back pain
Health Expect
Complementary healthcare: a guide for patients
Patients’ opinions about complementary medicine
Res Complement Med
Complementary medicine: use and attitudes among GPs
Family Pract
Access to complementary medicine in general practice: survey in one UK health authority
J Roy Soc Med
Cited by (11)
Patient experience, satisfaction, perception and expectation of osteopathic manipulative treatment: A systematic review
2019, International Journal of Osteopathic MedicineCitation Excerpt :Some patients found OMT consultations longer than chiropractic ones and with practitioners more willing to offer manipulation and diagnosis [51]. ‘Comprehensive assessment and review’ was performed at each session, treat ‘not just area of injury’, and with ‘potential to reveal an underlying cause of injury’ [45,46,48,49,51]. Many patients sought OMT after they ‘tried all else’ [46].
Barriers to identifying mood disorders in clients by New Zealand osteopaths: Findings of a thematic analysis
2018, International Journal of Osteopathic MedicineItem development for a questionnaire investigating patient self reported perception, satisfaction and outcomes of a single osteopathy in the cranial field (OCF) treatment
2013, International Journal of Osteopathic MedicineCitation Excerpt :Patient satisfaction is reported to impact on the outcomes of treatment and it could be reasonably argued that patient satisfaction and perception of treatment are intimately linked. In a systematic search of the ‘osteopathy’ literature, overall satisfaction was canvassed in a number of studies.25,40,44 This indicates that it is important to assess the patient's overall satisfaction with treatment, because this is likely to impact on the patient's overall perception of treatment.
How patients choose osteopaths: A mixed methods study
2013, Complementary Therapies in MedicineOptimising the psychological benefits of osteopathy
2007, International Journal of Osteopathic Medicine