Photo of BCA CEO, Cait Allen with Jim Shannon MP at the BCA's first ever parliamentary drop-in event in 2025
The MSK crisis is no longer approaching. It is here.
The latest figures show 428,000 people waiting for musculoskeletal care, up by almost 100,000 in the last year. Behind that number are people living with pain, losing mobility, struggling to work, deteriorating mental wellbeing, and watching manageable conditions become harder to treat.
This is not a marginal issue. The NHS has recognised the scale of the challenge. More than 20 million people in the UK live with an MSK condition, MSK issues account for up to 30% of GP consultations in England, and more than 30 million working days are lost each year because of these conditions.
That should alarm every clinician, policymaker and commissioner.
For too long, chiropractic has sat at the edge of national conversations about MSK care, despite being a regulated healthcare profession with deep expertise in spinal health, back pain, neck pain, movement and function. At a time when almost half a million people are waiting for MSK support, NHS commissioners should be asking a simple question: where can chiropractic safely, effectively and practically add capacity?
The question is not whether chiropractors can replace NHS colleagues. They cannot, and nor should they try. The question is whether the NHS can afford to ignore a trained, regulated, community-based workforce already helping patients manage pain, recover movement and return to daily life.
The answer to that must be no.
MSK conditions affect independence, productivity, mental wellbeing and economic participation. When people wait too long for support, the consequences ripple far beyond the clinic room. Pain becomes absence from work. Reduced mobility becomes isolation. Delayed care becomes greater pressure elsewhere in the system.
This is exactly the kind of challenge the Government says it wants to solve. Shifting care closer to home, making better use of community capacity, preventing deterioration, and supporting people back into work and active life.
Chiropractic should be part of that answer.
But this is also a call to arms for our profession.
If we want chiropractic to be recognised as part of the wider MSK workforce, we must make the case in the language that politicians and the NHS understand. It must be about evidence, outcomes, safety, governance and collaboration. We must show commissioners that chiropractic is not an alternative to mainstream care, but a practical partner within it. We must be ready to work in integrated pathways, share data, measure outcomes, support red-flag referral, and demonstrate value for patients and the public purse.
Real-world examples help us strengthen our position when we engage with the Government and the Department of Health and Social Care to understand the barriers facing the profession and explore how chiropractors can support NHS colleagues further. Our recent parliamentary roundtable was an important step in the process, but it must be the beginning of a wider conversation about MSK capacity, patient choice and community-based care.
The Government must now act. NHS commissioners should be encouraged to consider how regulated chiropractors can be included in MSK pathways, referral models and neighbourhood health services. Patients waiting in pain should not be denied access to available expertise simply because the system has been slow to recognise it. The MSK crisis demands more than sympathy. It demands action, partnership and ambition. Chiropractic is ready to play its role.
Wider Statisitcs:
The monthly ONS stats have once again risen, this time to 428,005, up from 425,796 in April 2026. Here is a breakdown of the waiting times for May.
Total: 428,005
Up to 1 week: 32,751
Waiting >1-2weeks: 37,333
Waiting >2-4 weeks: 60,527
Waiting >4 -12 weeks: 159,206
Waiting >12-18 weeks: 70,080
Waiting >18-52 weeks: 66,714
Waiting >52-104 weeks: 1,379
Waiting >104 weeks: 12