The pain team at Mid Essex Hospitals provides specialist advice and guidance in all aspects of pain management. It exists as a resource for health care practitioners and patients alike, and provides multidisciplinary training and education across the trust, as well as evidence-based clinical guidelines and protocols.
Clinical interventions are undertaken as part of a pain management stratagem for individuals who have been assessed as appropriate for these kinds of treatment. These range from acupuncture to more invasive procedures such as epidural injections and radio-frequency lesioning.
Pain itself can present as a simple acute episode with known cause, which is usually easily treated with simple analgesics. Circumstances which indicate the need for the pain team to be involved may be:
-
Uncontrolled pain, despite analgesics
-
Chronic or complex history of pain
-
Adverse effects of analgesics limiting choice of treatment
-
Abnormal pain symptoms or behaviour
-
Co-existing conditions requiring special consideration
The team consists of an integrated team of specialist nurses, medical practitioners and therapists with a diversity of expertise.
Inpatients
The team takes acute or chronic pain referrals from anywhere in the Trust, and operates a ‘prompt response’ system whereby patients are seen on the day of referral. This enables the nurse specialist to make an early assessment and to advise on pain management. There are 2 Consultant rounds a week, and where appropriate, a patient will be offered specialist intervention, such as an epidural injection, to treat the pain and expedite discharge from hospital.
The team is responsible for the safe management of a ward-based epidural service, and works in liaison with the Trust’s surgical teams to manage critical care and post-operative pain. A daily nurse-led clinical round takes place to oversee these patients.
Outpatients
Chronic pain is defined as pain which persists at least 3 months after the healing process has taken place and it becomes an illness with consequence for the family and the person suffering. It has been estimated that up to 1 in 7 people in Europe at any one time have a chronic persistent pain.
The pain team’s role is to assess and manage chronic painful conditions in order to allow the person suffering to improve their quality of life and function despite their problems. This can be difficult to achieve by one mode of treatment alone; therefore the team offers full initial assessments by a consultant, where an individualised treatment plan is initiated: this may include advice on lifestyle, drugs, therapeutic modalities such as acupuncture, or physiotherapy, and, in some cases, interventional treatments such as nerve blocks and epidurals. Monitoring and evaluation of progress is provided by nurse specialists in clinics run alongside the consultants’ clinics.
An essential element of chronic pain management is recognition and expert management of the psychological effect of the disease. Psychological-biased modalities such as relaxation and cognitive behavioural strategies are delivered in the out-patients setting by nurse specialists, and more complex needs are met by referring individuals to the Trust’s psychology department for assessment, from which timely and appropriate psychotherapy may be offered. This may be in the form of a group based pain management programme, or on an individual basis.
Multi-disciplinary involvement in the chronic pain patient’s management is essential, and close links and cross-referrals are made between the pain team and other specialities such as physiotherapy, neurology, orthopaedic, rheumatology and psychology departments.
The Clinical Team
Consultants
Dr Carol McCartney
Dr Victor Mendis
Dr Mark Alexander-Williams
Dr Tom Durcan
Dr Sobudha Thanthulage
Dr Tricia Richardson (burns)
Clinical Nurse Specialists
Lynne Mustard
Mairead Finn
Kate Tighe
Sue Farrar
Paula Mitchell
Cara Norris
Acupuncturist
Andrew Shapland
Health Care Support Workers
Joanna Whiston
Susan Brayson
Physiotherapist
Chris Clarke-Irons
Contact details
For inpatients, and A&E:
Pagers: #6555 2211 | #6555 2117
Telephone: 01245 516034
For outpatient enquiries:
Telephone: 01245 514461 (clinic appts)
01245 514086 (waiting list for procedures)
01245 514068 (other enquiries)
e-mail: Pain.service@meht.nhs.uk
Clinical Service Manager
Lynne Mustard
Telephone: 01245 516260
Pager: #6400379
Powered by EasySite™