Management of musculoskeletal foot and ankle conditions prior to public-sector orthopaedic referral in South Australia.

More than one-third of the participants had not accessed allied-health care prior to specialist orthopaedic referral. Participants may consider their GPs opinion on the necessity of surgery compelling, and most expected to undergo surgery, but many couldn't report their diagnosis. The discordance between the expectation of surgery and historically low surgical conversion rates suggests more work is necessary to improve the management of this group.