NHS is spending £40million a YEAR on ‘useless’ back pain injections and ignoring medical guidelines
Tens of thousands of patients have received the steroid jabs despite what guidance says
THE NHS is spending nearly £40million a year on useless back pain injections— despite doctors being told to stop using them, it is claimed.
Tens of thousands of patients receive steroid jabs into facet joints each year.
But an article in The Lancet said GPs are ignoring guidance not to use the ineffective treatment because frustrated patients with chronic problems demand a “quick fix”, The Times reported.
Back pain is Britain’s leading cause of disability, but needless surgery, scans and injections wastes up to £180 million a year.
Expert Martin Underwood, from Warwick University, said: “We’ve had two sets of guidelines saying ‘don’t do it’ but it continues to go up.”
Julie Wood, chief executive of NHS Clinical Commissioners, said her organisation was in discussion with NHS England and doctors groups to find a “national, professionally led approach... to focus on these sort of interventions to secure maximum value for every NHS pound we spend.”
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