Musculoskeletal health

What are musculoskeletal conditions?

Musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions affect many people and can affect your joints, bones and muscles and sometimes associated tissues such as your nerves. They can range from minor injuries to long-term conditions.

Over 20 million people in the UK, almost one third of the population, have a MSK condition such as arthritis or back pain. Symptoms can include pain, stiffness, limited movement, and disability which affect quality of life and independence.

How to get help

There are three main ways you can get help and support with MSK issues. These include:

• getUBetter self-management application
• Birmingham Community Healthcare Phyiotherapy Support
• Our PCN MSK services

getUBetter

We offer self-management support through an application called getUBetter.

getUBetter is an easy, safe and effective way to help people self-manage at home, at work and on the move. The app provides evidence-based self-management support for all common musculoskeletal injuries and conditions

Birmingham Community Healthcare Phyiotherapy Support

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Our PCN MSK services

As part our multidisciplinary team we have experienced First Contact Physiotherapists and MSK Practitioners. You can request an appointment with them through our normal appointment process which can be found here.

Physiotherapy

Physiotherapy helps to restore movement and function when someone is affected by injury, illness or disability. It can also help to reduce your risk of injury or illness in the future.

When is physiotherapy used?

Physiotherapy can be helpful for people of all ages with a wide range of health conditions, including problems affecting the:

• bones, joints and soft tissue – such as back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain and sports injuries
• brain or nervous system – such as movement problems resulting from a stroke, multiple sclerosis (MS) or Parkinson’s disease
• heart and circulation – such as rehabilitation after a heart attack
• lungs and breathing – such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cystic fibrosis

Physiotherapy can improve your physical activity while helping you to prevent further injuries.

Physiotherapists

Physiotherapy is provided by specially trained and regulated practitioners called physiotherapists.

What can our First Contact Physiotherapist do?

Physiotherapists consider the body as a whole, rather than just focusing on the individual aspects of an injury or illness.

Some of the main approaches used by physiotherapists include:

• education and advice – physiotherapists can give general advice about things that can affect your daily lives, such as posture and correct lifting or carrying techniques to help prevent injuries
• movement, tailored exercise and physical activity advice – exercises may be recommended to improve your general health and mobility, and to strengthen specific parts of your body
• onwards referral – where appropriate they can refer you to the appropriate secondary care services.

What can our MSK Practitioner do?

Our MSK Practitioner can do all of the both but has further skills and experience including:

• Soft tissue and joint injection therapy – steroid injections that can support in pain relief and promote recovery.
• Prescribing for MSK related conditions – they are able to prescribe medication that can support your with you MSK issues such as NSAIDs.
• Complex MSK issues – they are able to support patients who have multiple joint issues.