Abstract
Increasing pressure on healthcare costs and the availability of hospital beds means that more patients are being referred for community-based ambulatory rehabilitation. GPs will increasingly manage the out-of-hospital rehabilitation of a cohort of patients with mild-to-moderate disability, including their analgesia requirements during the rehabilitation process.
Key Points
- Increasingly, patients will be referred for home-based rehabilitation after discharge from hospital.
- GPs may be required to manage a patient’s analgesia during the rehabilitation process.
- Collaboration with a rehabilitation physician may be useful to establish a multidisciplinary treatment plan.
- Conditions need to be managed according to their likely causes and local resources, and management should always include analgesia, exercise and education.