Returning pain patients to normal life

Transform Health provides a commissioned NHS service across Cornwall. We work with patients who have persistent or recurrent back and neck pain, with or without arm and leg pain. We measure treatment outcomes to ensure our approach is effective and are constantly reviewing our practice to maintain standards.

Our remit is to prevent:

• Secondary referrals to spinal and neurosurgical clinics
• Further investigations
• Pain medication use
• Surgery

We use a science and research-based progression of physiotherapy called cognitive functional therapy (CFT). Since we began working with the NHS we have delivered significant results in reducing patient referrals for secondary services.

Patients for our service can be referred through the spinal pathway, marked for the attention of the non-surgical spinal specialists (CFT) team. We then triage the referral via our selection criteria to ensure that the presentation is suitable for our service. After our intervention, we report back to the referrer with our outcomes.

Primary Care Inclusion Criteria

• 3 months + history of non-specific low back or neck pain +/- leg or arm pain but without radiculopathy
• Stable, defined as unchanging over 3 months or more
• Pain provoked and relieved by postures, movement and activities
• No red flags as specified in the exclusion criteria

Please note imaging is not a prerequisite for referral.

Exclusion criteria include:

• Under 18 years or over 75
• Severe nerve root pain
• Severe spinal stenosis
• Definite wish to see a doctor/consultant or to have a particular intervention such as injections/MRI scan etc.
• Significant comorbidities
• Red flag conditions
• Inflammatory conditions

If you would like further information on our service or you are unsure about the suitability of a referral, please contact us via email at [email protected] or ring us on 01872 229849.