Characteristics of Back Pain Attendances at ED

Back pain is experienced by approximately 80% of the population during their life. However, only a small minority (\<1%) will have a medical condition (such as Cauda Equina Syndrome) which requires immediate medical intervention. Currently, it is not known how many people access Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in an attempt to meet their needs for their back pain. The demand on EMS is increasing and many of these patients could be better managed by other services. Additionally, little is known about the characteristics of those accessing EMS due to back pain, or the nature of the contacts regarding issues such as outcome of the patient contact. The aims of this study are: 1. to quantify the prevalence of people accessing EMS via attendance at an Emergency Department (ED) 2. to describe the characteristics of people attending ED with non-traumatic back pain 3. to describe key characteristics of the contact between the service user and EMS 4. to compare the prevalence of attendance, patient characteristics and contact characteristics between people with non-traumatic back pain and the general population of those attending ED. A secondary aim of the work is to explore what factors might predict patient outcomes such as whether the patient self presents or is referred to ED by another service, whether the patient receives analgesics, whether the patient receives a diagnostic scan and whether the patient is admitted to hospital.