RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Chronic pain is a widespread health problem. The four regional interdisciplinary pain management centres in Norway receive approximately 5 000 referrals from GPs and the specialist health service annually. Equality in service provision requires referrals to be identically assessed. The objective of the study was to evaluate the degree of correspondence between the admission teams in the pain management centres in their assessment of the quality of the referrals received and in their assessment of the patients' right to necessary health care. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Each admission team assessed 40 referrals. They undertook a 'primary assessment' of 10 referrals received in the regular manner and a 'secondary assessment' of 30 referrals sent in the regular manner to the other centres. Each referral was assessed for quality and rights in each centre. The proportion of agreement and the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) were used to assess correspondence between the admission teams. RESULTS: The quality of the referrals was deemed 'not good' in 45 % of the primary assessments and 43 % of the secondary assessments. The degree of correspondence varied from low (ICC = 0.19) to moderate (ICC = 0.74). The primary and secondary assessments both granted 63 % of the patients 'the legal right to health care'. The overall degree of correspondence was 69 %, i.e. lower than what is considered 'acceptable agreement' (75 %). INTERPRETATION: The study shows that there is a need for structured referrals, and for the admission teams to harmonise their assessments to a greater degree in order to ensure equality in service provision across the health regions.