Therapists at Haslemere’s Physiotherapy Centre have been giving builders free advice to help them look after their backs as part of national Back Care Awareness Week (2 to 6 October).

The centre held a free drop-in session for construction workers wanting advice about back care or who were worried about aches and pains in their backs.

“Construction work can take its toll on backs so it’s really important that builders know how look after themselves. As an industry, construction does a lot of excellent work in educating builders about good working practices,” says Ed Carroll, musculoskeletal physiotherapist at The Physiotherapy Centre, which is based at Holy Cross Hospital in Haslemere. “For the past 18 months or so we’ve had builders on site building a new education centre so we wanted to share our expertise with them during Back Care Awareness Week and help them to look after themselves.”

Many of The Physiotherapy Centre’s patients come to it with back pain. The centre’s therapists provide one-to-one consultations and treatment, including hydrotherapy and acupuncture, as well as individual and small group classes in Pilates and other techniques. Patients can refer themselves for a consultation by calling the centre on 01428 647647, or visiting the website, www.thephysiotherapycentre.org.uk to find out more information.

Back pain is one of the main causes of absence from work and is said to cost the economy £15 billion every year. Back Care Awareness Week was organised by national charity, Backcare.