Comments that reported or discussed each theme and illustrative quotations from participants (quotations have been copied verbatim)
| Theme | Number of comments (n) | Illustrative quotations |
| Clinical and cost efficiency | 118 | ‘… [W]ould benefit people financially if they do not have to go back to their GP for medication’ (participant 41). ‘Time and cost savings for busy workers, that is, not having to go to 2 appointments’ (participant 127). ‘…[I]mprove patient flow and decrease reliance on medical staff’ (participant 490). ‘Working in an Emergency Dept where access and flow is critical, enabling advanced musc [musculoskeletal] physios to prescribe would improve efficiency in the workplace and the patient experience’ (participant 7). ‘The ability to prescribe would enable more efficient service delivery to patients. A lot of time is wasted back and forth trying to get appropriate pain medication, antibiotics etc in a timely fashion’ (participant 32). |
| Access to prescription medicines | 71 | ‘Working in a rural area where it is difficult for a patient to be able to make a GP appointment (typical 2–3 week wait) I can see the benefit of streamlining the system by giving prescribing rights to physios who are also primary care professionals’ (participant 630). ‘Will reduce burden on overbooked GP’s and ED’s for people with pain problems, that is, Severe Acute Low back (pain) or those with inflammatory injuries’ (participant 873). ‘Physiotherapists working in public health help people from different minority groups every day - indigenous, recent immigrants, people relying on disability pensions, etc. Greater access to simple medications would improve their quality of life and reduce unnecessary attendances at over- worked GP clinics’ (participant 12). ‘I work in a country setting where travel times are significant and it can be difficult to get a doctor’s appointment and, when injured or without a licence, patients rely on friends, relatives or public transport to reach appointments. This means that a physiotherapy appointment with prescription would become a more efficient use of time and people are more likely to comply’ (participant 654). |
| Optimal therapeutics and clinical effectiveness | 15 | ‘Will allow physiotherapist to adjust medications particularly in management of chronic pain and LBP…’ (participant 333). ‘There is considerable potential for this to significantly improve adherence to medication regimes and to problem solve in a time appropriate manner’ (participant 45). ‘Physios tend to spend more time with patients and often are better skilled to recommend medications than even the registrars, especially in my urogynae advanced practice clinics, being able to prescribe anticholinergics and vaginal oestrogens would significantly increase the efficiency of the clinics as currently [patients] need two appointment times for this’ (participant 276). …‘[D]e-prescribing’ could potentially be a very important role for Physios’ (participant 790). |
| Time management | 9 | ‘The time required to keep up to date with medications and well as physiotherapy skills to be safe and effective I feel would impact the time available to treat patients…’ (participant 246). ‘Puts extra pressure on appointment time when we already have to deal with full assessment and treatment of the patient’s physical and psycho-social needs’ (participant 693). |