Around 21,000 people impacted each year by musculoskeletal problems such as back, knee and elbow pain are to benefit from a new service delivered by specialist physiotherapy and pain management teams in Northern Lincolnshire.

Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, part of NHS Humber Health Partnership, has just been awarded a £10.2m contract in partnership with Connect Health to deliver pain management and musculoskeletal (MSK) services for the next four years.

Hospital-based and community therapy teams will work with Connect Health, the UK’s largest independent community healthcare provider of MSK, pain management and mental health services, to care for people with MSK problems.

Ant Rosevear, Operations Director for Community, Frailty and Therapy Care Group at NHS Humber Heath Partnership, said: “This new service will offer patients timely access to assessment, diagnosis and treatment.

“Our clinical teams will work with patients, putting them at the centre of decision-making about their care so they feel empowered to manage their own conditions with expert support at the right time.

“By responding to individual needs, we’re aiming to remove the need for inconvenient and time-consuming outpatient appointments in hospital by delivering tailored care in community settings, closer to home.”

Currently, NLaG provides an MSK community service in partnership with other organisations in North Lincolnshire but the contract ends in December.

Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, which commissions health services for the local population, was keen to introduce a single service covering both North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire.

NLaG and Connect Health launched a joint bid, which has now been accepted and will begin in January. Although the initial contract, worth around £2.5m a year, is for four years, there is an option to extend it to 2029.

Paul Allan, Chief Operating Officer at Connect Health, said: “We are excited to work with colleagues at NLAG to deliver this unified service across Northern Lincolnshire.

“Blending our national expertise and infrastructure with the local knowledge, skills and capabilities of the trust and its people will deliver the commissioners’ aims and improve services for local people.”