ChRonic Pain treatment

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Dr Michael Stafford is a specialist in chronic back pain treatment, based in Belfast Northern Ireland. In addition to chronic back pain, he offers treatment for a number of other chronic pain conditions such as sciatica, fibromyalgia, chronic daily headache, chronic migraine, myofascial (muscle) pain, neuropathic (nerve) pain, facial pain, including trigeminal neuralgia, whiplash associated disorders (WAD) and chronic arthritis.

With over fifteen years experience as a consultant in pain medicine, Dr Stafford is committed to providing highest standard of care to chronic pain sufferers. This is achieved through a comprehensive process of assessment, diagnosis, and advice on treatment of your chronic pain condition

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Dr Michael Stafford is recognised and registered with the following medical insurance companies

The Burden of Chronic Pain

Chronic Pain in numbers

Chronic pain affects up to 30% of the population

In the UK alone, up to 8 million adults suffer from a chronic pain condition.

For Northern Ireland, this could be as many as 400,000 adults

Chronic pain costs the UK economy over £10Billion per year

Chronic neuropathic pain affects 8% of adults in UK

Fibromyalgia affects almost 6% of adults in the UK

Chronic migraine affects 2% of adults in UK

Up to 65% of the greater than 70 years age group suffer chronic pain

Chronic Back Pain

Chronic back pain accounts for 40% of sickness absence in UK

Chronic back pain accounts for 11% of disability payments in UK

Potentially, 84% of adults will experience back pain at some point in their life

There are 1.6 million new episode of chronic back pain each year in the UK

A bit about me

Dr Michael Stafford is a specialist in chronic back pain treatment, based in Belfast. Northern Ireland. He is a consultant in chronic pain management, based primarily at the chronic pain clinic at the Ulster Hospital in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He also has private practice chronic pain clinic in Belfast, based at Kingsbridge Private Hospital and Medical Associates. His main specialist area is management of chronic back pain, but he sees many other chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia, chronic headache, including migraine, sciatica and facial pain, including trigeminal neuralgia.

After graduating in medicine from Queen’s University, Belfast in 1993, I began training in anaesthesia in 1995. Gaining fellowship of the College of Anaesthesiologists, Ireland in 1998, I completed my medical training in 2003 as an anaesthesiologist.

Having completed my medical training, I was accepted for a fellowship at the Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, where I completed 1 year of advanced training in chronic pain medicine.

I was awarded an MD in 2004 and became a Fellow of the Faculty of Pain Management at the College of Anaesthesiologists, Ireland in 2008.

My present post is at the chronic pain management clinic at the Ulster Hospital, Belfast , Northern Ireland since January 2005, and I have been the clinical lead for chronic pain medicine there since 2012.

My private practice is based in Belfast, at Kingsbridge Private Hospital and Belfast Medical Associates.

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