A neglected source of treatment outcome evaluation is the opinion of the referring physicians. We report on 179 patients with chronic pain who were admitted to a 6 week inpatient inter-disciplinary pain programme. A retrospective 2 page mail questionnaire accompanied by initial letters of referral was sent to the referring physicians. We hypothesized that the main reason family physicians referred patients was to establish a management plan. The physician response rate was 70%, encompassing 72% of the patients. Intra-observer reliability was tested by a second mailing 3 months later (68% response rate). Test-retest reliability, and correlations between questions were significant and are reported for: reasons for referral, the utility of the discharge summary, coping, and behavioural changes at discharge and at time of the questionnaire. This appears to be the first report of a survey of the evaluation of a pain programme by referring physicians.