Norfolk Orthopaedic Clinical Triage Assessment and Treatment (CATS) Service

Our team is staffed by physiotherapy extended scope practitioners, clinical specialists and GPs with Specialist Interest (GPwSI) in orthopaedics.

We triage, examine, assess, diagnose and treat patients who have an orthopaedic or orthopaedic-type condition and are experiencing:

• pain
• restricted movement
• reduced function
• other symptoms

These conditions include back and neck pain, osteoarthritis (OA), cartilage defects, ligament of tendon injuries, disc disorders, stenosis, repetitive strain injuries (RSI), rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and fibromyalgia.

After the initial assessment the we may treat you with advice, exercises, mobilisation techniques or local injections. We may refer you for physiotherapy or for diagnostics investigations like x-rays or scans.

Where surgery may be required, the clinician will refer the patient to the acute hospital Trust to be seen by a consultant surgeon.

Our service is not available to adults in West Norfolk.

We accept referrals from healthcare professionals.

Eligibility

We accept adults with a benign orthopaedic condition who are registered a Norfolk GP (excluding West Norfolk).