At one time we set aside 1 experienced physio in O/P dept to screen all referrals. This had the huge advantage of sifting out the inappropriate ones, and those that needed to be in a more suitable environment -eg with community physios. however the dept was so depleted by cutbacks this wasn't feasible to continue with. If you can spare someone for a set time each week to deal with the non-acute referrals, for example, considerable time can be saved and GPs etc educated to other ways of managing patients.