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Persistent pain leads to loss of physical, social and emotional well-being.
The consultant members of the Pain Management department help many sufferers of persistent pain by offering:
· A full biopsychosocial assessment including red flag symptoms and signs investigated when appropriate, and recognition of blue flag psychological signs
· Education and support
· Rationalisation of medication to maximize pain relief whilst reducing side effects and interactions
· Evidence based interventions to reduce the severity of pain including:
o facet joint injections and radio-frequency denervations for low back ‘nerve root’ and neck pain,
o epidurals for pain and stenotic pain,
o nerve blocks and pulsed radiofrequency treatment for neuropathic pain
o soft tissue, muscle and joint injections
o sympathetic nerve blocks for complex regional pain syndromes after surgery or trauma
· Optimisation of self-management
· Access to the multidisciplinary Pain Management Programme including:
o Medical consultant
o Clinical Health Pschologists
o Physiotherapists
o Nurse Specialist
Pain Management Programmes (PMP)
· After referral, patients are invited to attend an introductory session. At multi-disciplinary assessment, the patient and clinicians will decide together whether PMP represents the best next step in the patient’s treatment pathway. After this, patients will attend an appropriate programme
· Outcomes include increased levels of fitness and physical function, less reliance on medication and aids, improvement in mood and relationships, and fewer contacts in primary and secondary care health services.
Chronic Pain Management Service
This service offers a variety of services to complement the medical consultants and other members of the interdisciplinary team.
This includes the following 8 nurse led clinics per week across site providing:
- Review appointments to advise on further care and medication plans
- Analgesic medication reviews
- Support to develop a self management approach to managing persistent pain
- Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS)
The aim is to relieve the patients' pain and disability, but where relief of pain is not possible then our aim is to provide appropriate support and advice to help the patient manage and cope with their pain.
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