Patient referral and the physiotherapist: three decades later.

The move to become primary contact professionals was perhaps the most significant move in the over hundred year history of the profession. This was a change not taken lightly but one that grew out of a sense that the profession had matured and that it was time to move beyond our close association with the medical profession. At the time this action by Australia caused significant argument in the world physiotherapy community as we were the first country to enact this change. Not all countries were comfortable with the move as a subordinate role to the medical profession was the preferred model for physiotherapy practice in some countries.