Three In Ten Patients Head Straight For The Health Specialist

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Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 10 Feb 2006 - 22:00 PDT

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According to research from the Health Professions Council (HPC), 29% of UK health professionals' patients say they have referred themselves rather than consulting a GP, and just one in four (28%)* people would insist on a GP referral before seeing a specialist, such as a physiotherapist or chiropodist. The independent regulator, which sets national standards of professional training, performance and conduct for over 160,000 specialists across 13 health professions**, is warning anyone seeking a health professional's services to check their specialist is qualified and permitted by law to practice, by visiting its consumer protection website at http://www.HPCheck.org

HPC's research has also revealed that an alarming eight out of ten (81%) patients made no attempt to check their health specialists are registered and meet legal standards*. Marc Seale, Chief Executive of the HPC, comments:

"The market for health professionals' services is expanding, as more and more people engage with health issues and seek to stay on top of their own. We're urging anyone, particularly the surprisingly large number choosing to go direct, to run a quick check that their specialist is registered, meaning they meet national standards of ongoing training and performance and are legally allowed to practice under one of our protected titles."

According to HPC's National Check-up study*, the most commonly cited reason given by those who would go direct to a health professional in future is to save time, whilst recommendation and trust are also major factors.

Over 30 million UK adults have been treated by at least one health professional** in their lifetime, and over half (52%) of these have seen one in the last 12 months.

HPC has launched a website, http://www.HPCheck.org, where people can quickly check whether a health professional is registered, and find out more about what this means for them. To check HPC's online register, people simply type in the name or registration number of the person they intend to see and their health profession, and the search will confirm their registration details.

* The Health Professions Council commissioned independent research agency, MORI, to survey a representative quota sample of 2,127 UK adults aged 15+, between 22nd and 26th September 2005. Questions were placed on MORI's GB Omnibus, with an additional ad hoc survey in Northern Ireland. All data have been weighted to the known profile of the UK population. Interviews were conducted in-home, face-to-face using CAPI in Great Britain and on paper in N. Ireland.

About the Health Professions Council

The Health Professions Council is a statutory independent, UK-wide health regulator set up by the Health Professions Order (2001). The HPC keeps a register for thirteen different health professions and only registers people who meet the standards it sets for their training, professional skills, behaviour and health. The HPC will take action against people who do not meet these standards or who use one of the protected titles (listed below) illegally.

Who HPC regulates

HPC currently regulate the following thirteen professions. Each of these professions has one or more 'protected titles' that must be registered. Anyone who uses one of these titles must register with the HPC. To see the full list of protected titles please see:

hpc-uk.org/aboutregistration/protectedtitles

-- Arts therapists

-- Biomedical scientists

-- Chiropodists and podiatrists

-- Clinical scientists

-- Dieticians

-- Occupational therapists

-- Operating department practitioners

-- Orthoptists

-- Paramedics

-- Physiotherapists

-- Prosthetists and orthotists

-- Radiographers

-- Speech and language therapists

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