Thousands of Patients Given Useless Back-pain Medication

A story has broken this week revealing that tens of thousands of patients are being given unnecessary steroid injections to counter back pain.

Some patients that demand fast treatment are being prescribed with a £540 procedure despite doctors being discouraged to recommend the treatment.

According to the Daily Mail and The Times; “Lower-back pain affects at least four in five people at some point in their lives, with around one in five sufferers developing chronic discomfort lasting a year or more.”

This should not be the case when the NHS itself calls TENS “a safe treatment with no side effects” and “it's worth trying instead of, or in addition to, the usual medical treatments.”

TensCare’s line of pain relief units are both cheaper, and safer than steroid injections or indeed invasive surgery.

TENS units have been used since the ‘60s to help people with pain management, and TensCare aims to make people feel better naturally, using the body’s built-in pain treatment system.

It is possible to manage pain without the need for addictive and expensive drugs, and it’s important that we spread that message to minimise the adverse effects of these unnecessary prescriptions.