Referrals to OPD

I'm now just over halfway through my out patient placement, and have seen quite a variety in how patients present and how their referral describes them. Given that the department sees a large number of patients referred from orthoapedic clinics, there is in some cases quite a large waiting time. For those who need post op reviews or exercise prescription, or referrals to hydrotherapy, some have been seen within 2 weeks of the referral. However, in the cases of non surgical and non trauma patients, the referrals have been in some cases more then 8 weeks ago. An example of this is a patient who suffered a dislocation of their patella. As this patient had certain equipment available (knee brace, crutches) through a friend, they were reviewed at the clinic and advised to rest the knee, being referred onto physiotherapy. However, with so many weeks beteen the referral and availability of treatment, the presentation of the patient can vary significantly. In the case of the patient who was more proactive, their condition was generally better, with less pain and better range of motion. However, in another case I saw, there had been next to no activity of the knee since the ortho clinic (the patient's ADL's did not call for high levels of activity). As a result the patient presented with almost unchanged pain levels, had not attempted to maintain any range (now very pain and resistance limited) and had a degree of sensitisation around the knee. Hence, the referral asking for review of a patient who was 8 weeks post patella disloaction was significantly different to the presentation of the patient at the clinic.
However, having spent some time in the orthopaedic clinic while on prac, I have resigned myself to the fact that it is the most effective system. Each consultation with the Orthopaedic surgeon and the physiotherapist (if present) lasts around 15 minutes, which does not provide any opportunity to give any more advice other then symptom control (rest, ice, heat packs etc). The surgeon and the physio simply don't have the time to go into any sort of treatment recommendations, and as a result, the longer the waitlist for the patient, the greater possible variance in their presentation. If anyone has experience similiar situations and wanted to voice their opinion that would be swell.