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
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.
