'The Doctor doesn't need to see you now': reduction in general practice appointments following group pain management.

Background: Patients living with chronic, non-malignant, musculoskeletal pain are frequent visitors to general practice (GP) services, placing a large burden on resources. Pain management programmes (PMPs) are recommended for chronic pain patients and aim to teach self-management techniques. While there is evidence for their clinical effectiveness, few studies have explored whether there is a reduction in primary care healthcare use after attending a PMP.

Can a pain management programme approach reduce healthcare use? Stopping the revolving door.

Patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain are frequent users of healthcare. Whilst evidence suggests that a multidisciplinary pain management programme (PMP) approach is effective in reducing patients' levels of distress and disability, there is little research examining the cost-effectiveness of such an approach. The present study sought to address this by examining the impact a PMP had on patients' pain-related secondary care healthcare use.