We are a clinic of three registered Chiropractors,  a part-time Chartered Physiotherapist and three Sports Massage therapists. Over the years we have developed a close working relationship with numerous local consultants and GP’s providing evidence-based expert assessment & treatment of spinal pain. A large percentage of our work comes from these relationships and an ongoing commitment to excellence. Ask yourself, does your current musculoskeletal provider write to you for every new patient informing you of their findings, treatment plan and expected outcome? Do they measure their outcomes with validated pre and post outcome assessment tools and keep you updated? Do they take part in regular audits?

We do, that’s why so much of our work comes from GP’s and consultants and why we have been asked by a professional sports team to be their exclusive chiropractors. We are also registered with Axa, Aviva, SimplyHealth and other major insurers.

Chiropractic Treatment

Have a look around our website and see the innovative programme we have developed in conjunction with the medical staff of Southend United football club where we have seen a sharp reduction in the number of practices and matches missed due to non-contact low back and neck pain since adding weekly on-site Chiropractic services to the club.

We have spoken at the GP refresher course at Southend Hospital on many occasions. The lecture includes diagnostic triage of low back pain focussing on current guidelines, identifying yellow and red flags and real-world examples of red flags we have seen over the years. We then cover when to refer to a Chiropractor and when to refer to orthopaedics with expected time frames from different phases of treatment.

If you are unable to make it to the GP refresher week and would like a presentation for your surgery during your “time to learn” sessions simply contact our clinic reception to make a booking. This has proven to be very popular with local surgeries.

Some GP’s are concerned where they stand legally when referring a patient to a chiropractor. The BMA has issued guidance on this very topic. For a full overview go here. As the BMA notes there is no problem referring to Chiropractors as we are registered healthcare providers meaning we must have malpractice and liability insurance as we are adhering to a strict protocol of guidelines and ethics.

Treatment Room Southend Essex

In today’s world we all want to see “evidence” of effectiveness so here are some recent studies. You can click on any of the hyperlinks to download a PDF file of the summary or full study that is mentioned:

  1. A British orthopaedic surgeon published the findings of his work in a Canadian hospital with Chiropractors (Chiropractors are part of the NHS in Saskatchewan, Canada) on 283 consecutive people suffering chronic disabling low back pain. The average person had pain for over 6 years, many of them were disabled (unable to work) with pain and several had previous unsuccessful spinal surgery, all had the previous physiotherapy. Of those with mechanical pain, 81% improved and the results were maintained at a one-year follow-up. For a full copy of the study go here.
  2.  What happens when current low back guidelines are followed and Chiropractors are involved? Quite simply, there are large cost savings to be had by using the appropriate providers at the appropriate time. Here is an overview of the highly successful programme run by the North East Essex PCT of >2800 patients that has led to a sharp reduction in onward referrals to the spinal surgery department resulting in greater patient satisfaction, improved outcomes and lower costs. For an overview of the recommendations by the Department of Health to expand this type of programme nationwide go here.
  3. This study reports the significant improvement in outcomes of Chiropractic management of low back pain compared with GP/physio care. Another RCT was just published in SPINE from Canada where Chiropractors are part of their NHS in many areas.
  4.  Although we have numerous well-designed international guidelines on the management of LBP, we still have serious problems with what practitioners and health services actually do. Here is an excerpt from a recent review: “According to a 2008 report in JAMA over a 13-yr period between 1994-2007:
    • MRIs have increased by 307%
    • spinal fusion surgery has increased by 204%
    • spinal injections have increased by 629%
    • opiate use has increased by 423%
    And guess what? Outcomes have not improved and arguably worsened. It is also not difficult to estimate where much of the healthcare costs come from based on those percentages”.
    There is however very good news from another trial published in 2011, much like the recent trial in Canada, and by the NE Essex PCT, these American researchers at Jordan Hospital, Plymouth MA; School of Health and Rehabilitative Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, USA looked at what happens if you implement current low back guidelines. Just as the previous studies have noted you have much better outcomes with considerably lower costs by adding Chiropractors. it’s all about the right people doing the right thing at the right time.
  5. This UK Medical Research Council trial published in the BMJ noted in their large-scale RCT of chiropractic treatment vs. hospital outpatient services, that those treated by chiropractors had 70% more benefit for their chronic low back pain at 1-yrs follow-up and 29% at 3-yrs follow-up.
  6. The UK BEAM trial, this study formed the basis of the new NHS NICE guidelines for the management of persistent low back pain. The researchers noted that at the end of the long-term follow-up, those receiving both spinal manipulation and exercises (both core skills of chiropractors) had much better outcomes than those receiving just manipulation or exercise alone, on a pure cost basis spinal manipulation alone provided the most cost-effective solution. For a full copy of the study go here. The EU also has formal guidelines for low back pain, for a full copy go here.
  7. Low back pain, It’s all about the right people doing the right thing at the right time, it’s time to accept the evidence. This past study looked at the evidence to date, there are over 30 RCTs supporting spinal manipulation in the treatment of low back pain, that’s why every major guideline supports the Chiropractic approach in LBP management and why so much of our work comes from consultants and GPs.
  8. At Southend United we based our spinal clinic on this recent Australian study with a few modifications, to date it has been an enormous success and we have seen a sharp reduction in the number of missed practices and matches. Like the rest of the population low back pain is the largest non-contact problem in professional footballers, a recent study indicated that the rates of low back pain are 20% higher than in the general population. Published in 2010 Australian research divided players from four professional Australian rules football teams into two groups: those with physiotherapists and sports doctors, and the other group with the addition of Chiropractic services. The results were impressive. At the end of the season, the two teams with the addition of Chiropractic services reported a significant reduction in non-contact low back pain, hamstring and knee injuries with a staggering reduction in the number of missed matches compared to the control group without Chiropractic services (1-week playing time lost vs 24-weeks playing time lost).
  9. It’s not just low back pain. There are two interesting observational studies by a group of leading UK orthopaedic surgeons, after these trials, they concluded that in their opinion “Chiropractic is the only proven treatment for chronic whiplash pain”. The largest scale neck pain study done to date took 10 years to complete and is known as the “Neck Pain Task Force”. It concluded recently that the preferred approaches to managing mechanical neck pain involve exercise and manual treatments.
  10. How do you find a good Chiropractor? Well, there is a study on that too: Good healthcare providers. When you refer someone to us please provide us with copies of any radiology reports for x-ray/MRI scans as well a printout from your computer of any relevant medical history.

If you are the head of a local GP consortium and would like to learn more about how you can use our expertise to improve your outcomes and reduce your costs simply contact our reception team on 01702 342329.