PEOPLE living with back pain in the Great Yarmouth and Waveney area may be offered acupuncture as part of their physiotherapy treatment.Physiotherapists working for NHS Yarmouth and Waveney's community services team offer acupuncture alongside other forms of treatment for low back pain.

PEOPLE living with back pain in the Great Yarmouth and Waveney area may be offered acupuncture as part of their physiotherapy treatment.

Physiotherapists working for NHS Yarmouth and Waveney's community services team offer acupuncture alongside other forms of treatment for low back pain. Although this practice has been provided for several years, the raised profile comes after national guidance is backing support of this form of treatment.

Amanda Cousins, chief operating officer for the community services team, said: “The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has recently issued guidelines to cover the early treatment and management of persistent non-specific low back pain that has lasted for more than six weeks but for less than 12 months.”

Non-specific low back pain is defined as tension, soreness and/or stiffness in the lower back region for which it is not possible to identify a specific cause of the pain.

Mrs Cousins added: “Yarmouth and Waveney community services aims to provide the very best care for patients with this condition.

“The NICE guidelines support the provision of acupuncture and also recommend spinal manipulative therapy/mobilisation, structured exercise programs and education.”

A group of physiotherapists, within the team, have undertaken the additional training required and are able to offer acupuncture as part of their treatment “repertoire”.

Mrs Cousins added: “We will be working over the coming year to gain feedback from our patients in order to improve our services further.”