Back pain cost the country 5 million working days a year.
That is a lot of people in pain over the course of a year. Have a look at the information on the link and make your own mind up whether it is in favour of the patient or just another way to shuffle them round the system , by giving your Doctor a set target date and setting you and them up to fail.
New guidelines for the CG88 or the New Pathway, for when a patient is suffering Back Pain.
It talks of earlier intervention , but then who is going to intervene, have they put in place the necessary things to make this work?
As many people already know the waiting list for physiotherapy appointments are already stretched and a lot of the time a patient is just get given exercises to do, till they can see a physiotherapist, but due to the pain can’t do the exercise.
Lets get something straight from the start, your Doctor will do their best for you, but in most cases all they can do is refer you for an MRI as NICE says an X-ray is not the way to go, an X-ray will not show muscular problems, then you have a choice medication or physiotherapy, all this takes time and referrals, but to whom ?
Early intervention needs to be just that at the point of need, not 12-18 weeks down the line, a strategy needs to be there from the beginning and Doctors need the back up, NICE give options that are fine on paper, but do not seem to have considered how to put this into practise.
If your in pain you need to get help straight away, a simple thing as a starting point is ICE. Please make sure when you apply an Ice pack you have wrapped it in a tea towel, we don’t want you burning your skin, apply for 10- 15 minutes every 2-3 hours yes at the outset you may need painkillers to help, but they are not a long term solution. Folks Neuromuscular Injury Therapy was designed for this sort of intervention and a good Injury Therapist can help.
Why do you think Sports people go to them?
I have found over the years in this business that with Early intervention, from Neuromuscular Manipulation, Injury Therapy and Dealing first with the injury, then the whole person, going onto light kinetic exercise , working with the client, has a more positive and beneficial result ,than giving them a list of exercise to do from a sheet of paper.
Using cutting edge equipment to aid me, having both Medical and other Sport injury Colleagues, to call on for advice and if necessary, further treatment for the client, has also been beneficial.
