Good article here highlighting a study by Keele University which found no raised safety concerns from patients seeing a Physiotherapists as a first point of contact instead of a GP. There was also no increase in demand on the trial service when it was opened up for self-referral, despite writing to all 8000 patients at the practices. This is often cited as a stumbling block to instigating such a service, a myth we also found not true when we started a self referral service 7 years ago.
Check out the article here:
http://www.csp.org.uk/press-releases/2017/03/13/patients-must-have-direct-access-physio-says-csp