ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a checklist for which a therapist should have the answers as getting the answers would greatly enhance his/her chance of success. The list includes the size of the population the therapist's service covers, the proportion of the population living in urban/semi-rural/rural areas, the deprivation indices of each area, the gender, age and ethnic breakdown of the population, and if the profile and size of the population has changed over the last three years. The therapist should also be aware of the annual referral rate to his/her service which is expressed as a proportion per 1000 of the population, the breakdown of referral rates per individual site expressed as a proportion per 1000 of the population, the investigations or drugs new patients had or were prescribed, and the proportion of referrals classed as inappropriate.
