Overall Principles

The pathway includes the following general overall principles.

• It is accepted that not all patients with a knee problem require to be seen in secondary care to determine management. With appropriate specified indications some patients can be directed to initial treatment with options such as podiatry, physiotherapy and orthotics.

• At any time the pathway can be bypassed and a patient referred directly to secondary care either for criteria specified in the pathway or for any other reason.

• A system for providing early assessment and treatment has been established in the region devised to provide focussed initial assessment and screening in addition to access to specialist physiotherapists outside of secondary care. In this document this is referenced as the MSCAT system. The pathway allows for patients to be referred direct to these areas or to have initial investigations and primary treatment outside of that system.