New proposals from NICE the organisation that advises the NHS on effective treatments may be introduced soon for spinal manipulations for back pain reports Solihull Physiotherapist John Williams.
John is Clinic Director of the Atlas Physiotherapy Clinic on the Robin Hood Island, Stratford Rd, Hall Green, Birmingham www.solihullphysiotherapist.co.uk
Patients may be able to see a practitioner who is trained in spinal manipulation via a GP referral and funded by the NHS.
This concerns Solihull Physiotherapist John Williams who is also a registered Solihull Osteopath. The suggestion is that up to 9 visits for spinal manipulations could be authorised for back pain sufferers via the GP.
For practitioners that manipulate the spine this could be a licence to print money. Some practitioners currently give patients no more than 10 minutes a session and the only form of treatment offered is spinal manipulations. Imagine a never ending stream of NHS patients receiving this form of treatment, the cash tills would be ringing but would the back pain patients benefit?
Physiotherapists who do not receive spinal manipulation training as a part of their degree training may decide to go into private practice after receiving post graduation training in manipulation as a means of financial reward.
Manipulations are quick to administer but can be dangerous especially if performed on the neck. Some practitioners regularly perform neck manipulations as a routine treatment with the suggestion that they are putting things back in place.
I am very concerned that a patient may receive 9 neck manipulations in 2 or 3 weeks because the system may allow for up to 9 visits. Physiotherapists,Chiropractors and Osteopaths may get the opportunity to take part in this proposal but back pain manipulations carried out by inexperienced practitioners or done excessively for financial gain will not be helpful for the patient.
Perhaps a system of feedback from patients such as on ebay would be a good idea. This way positive feedback from patients would result in more GP referrals and negative feedback would exclude any referrals.
Power to the patients would result and practitioners would need to treat patients well and get measured results. This would sort out the better practitioners from the rest and justify more referrals.
