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Pain Management

The Pain Management Service is a busy, dynamic service involving professionals from various disciplines working together to provide management of acute and chronic pain and pain in patients with cancer.

Our aim is that all patients will have access to appropriate pain management strategies to enable them to achieve their optimal quality of life.

For more information about disabled access for this service, please click here.

 

 

 

Services

We have an integrated acute and chronic Pain Management Service.

We aim to provide patients with an appropriate, tailored care plan to manage their pain and optimise their quality of life.

Services include:

  • Daily acute pain ward round at Sandwell and City site
  • 10 multi-disciplinary pain clinics per week at City Hospital
  • One multi-disciplinary pain clinic in primary care
  • Three nurse-led pain clinics in primary care
  • 10 Day case procedure lists per week
  • One nurse-led lidocaine infusion list per week
  • Four sessions of acupuncture per week
  • Two Pain Self-Management Programmes
  • One Primary Care Pain Management Programme
  • Fortnightly Activity group after completing a Self-Management Programme
  • Monthly Support group after completing a Self-Management Programme
  • 1:1 psychology
  • Specialist physiotherapy

Acute Pain Service
This service was set up in 1991 and was the first of its kind in the West Midlands. It is designed to optimise pain control for inpatients. The service includes:

  • Daily ward rounds by a dedicated team of nurses
  • Support in the care of patients with acute and chronic pain
  • Support in the use of analgesic pumps
  • Pain management techniques for patients with recurring chronic pain conditions that flare up

Chronic Pain Service
Chronic pain can often be a complex problem that has existed for many months or years. The aim of the chronic pain service is to assists people in managing their pain to help them improve their quality of life, as it is not always possible to cure chronic pain.

Outpatient clinics
Patients are referred to the outpatients clinic from their GP or consultants in other specialties. A new referral to the chronic pain service may be seen by a number of different specialists, including:

  • Nurse specialists who will ask the patient specific questions about the nature of their pain and advise them of potential treatment options.
  • A psychologist who will discuss with the patient how pain is affecting on their day-to-day life and offer advice and strategies on how to cope with pain
  • A physiotherapist who will assess the patient’s mobility and strength, and offer advice on stretches, exercises and activities.
  • A consultant in pain management who will assess the patient’s medication and give advice on analgesics and other treatment, such as nerve blocks.

All of the health professionals involved have a special interest in pain management and work together to provide a comprehensive assessment and treatment plan based on the difficulties that individual patients face.

Diagnostic tests such as X-rays, MRIs and blood tests are not routinely performed as these are usually done prior to your referral and attendance at clinic.

 

Pain Self-Management Programme
Some patients may benefit from participating in a pain self-management programme. These programmes give individuals the information and strategies to enable them to manage their own pain more effectively and therefore lead more active and fulfilling lives and maintain their independence, despite the pain. Each patient commits to a 10-week course of weekly sessions lasting two and a half hours each. Topics covered in the programme include:

  • Why acute and chronic pain are different and why they need managing differently?
  • Medicines and their use in chronic pain
  • Relaxation techniques and stress management
  • Pacing and goal setting
  • Approaches to activity – including fears about activity and enabling you to feel confident to resume some hobbies you previously enjoyed
  • Managing flare ups and setback
  • Thoughts and feeling and how they affect pain

Pain Procedures
Some patients with chronic pain conditions will be suitable for medical interventions that are aimed at reducing the pain signals travelling through certain nerves within the body. This may be:

  • Injection to the site of your pain with local anesthetic and steroid being injected to bathe the nerve, which calms the pain.
  • Lidocaine +/- Magnesium infusion to help reduce widespread body pain
  • Qutenza patch applied to a specific area to help treat and reduce nerve pain.

These interventions take place in the Birmingham Treatment Centre at City Hospital and are day case procedures only.

Community pain management services
Community outpatient clinics are also held weekly at the Lyng Centre for Health in West Bromwich and at the Birmingham Treatment Centre.

 

Patient Information

Patient information leaflets
Amitriptyline ML5207
Acupuncture ML7018
Boxton Injection for Migraines ML7224

Capsaicin Cream (ML5206)
Cervical Facet Median Nerve Blocks ML7295
Epidural injection for chronic pain relief ML7298
Facet Joint Injection or Facet Median ML4771
Gabapentin
Local anaesthetic joint injection ML7296
Nerve root sleeve injection ML4774
Pain Lignocaine (Lidocaine) Infusions (ML5545)
Pain management programme
Pain self-management (ML6689)
Patient – Initiated Follow-Up (PIFU) ML7229
Psychology Services ML4850
Qutenza ML7337
Radio Frequency Facet Denervation ML7306
Sacro-Iliac Joint Injection ML7039
Stellate ganglion block ML7305
Trigger Point Injection ML7307
Greater occipital nerve block ML7044

Useful websites

Action for ME
www.afme.org.uk

Action on Pain
www.action-on-pain.co.uk

Arthritis & Musculoskeletal Alliance (ARMA)
www.arma.uk.net

Arthritis Care
www.arthritiscare.org.uk

Arthritis Research Campaign
www.arc.org.uk

BackCare
www.backcare.org.uk

Brain and Spine Foundation
www.brainandspine.org.uk

British Pain Society
www.britishpainsociety.org

Colostomy Association
www.colostomyassociation.org.uk

DIAL UK (disability information)
www.dialuk.info

Disabled Living Foundation
www.dlf.org.uk

Endometriosis SHE Trust
www.shetrust.org.uk

FibroAction
www.fibroaction.org

Fibromyalgia Association UK
www.fibromyalgia-associationuk.org

Fircone – Friends in Retirement
www.firconebirmingham.org.uk

Herpes Viruses Association
www.herpes.org.uk

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) Network
www.ibsnetwork.org.uk

Limbless Association
www.limbless-association.org

Lupus UK
www.lupusuk.org.uk

ME Association/ME Connect
www.meassociation.org.uk

Meningitis Research Council
www.meningitis.org

Migraine Action Association
www.migraine.org.uk

Migraine Trust
www.migrainetrust.org

MS Society of GB and Northern Ireland
www.mssociety.org.uk

National Ankylosing Spondylitis Society
www.nass.co.uk

National Association for Colitis and Crohn’s Disease
www.nacc.org.uk

National Endometriosis Society
www.endo.org.uk

National Osteoporosis Society
www.nos.org.uk

National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society
Helpline: 0845 4583969

Pain and Self Care Toolkit
www.paintoolkit.org

Pain Concern
www.painconcern.org.uk

Pain Relief Foundation
www.painrelieffoundation.org.uk

Pelvic Pain Support Network
www.pelvicpain.org.uk

RADAR (Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation)
www.radar.org.uk

RSD UK (reflex sympathy dystrophy information)
www.rsd-crps.co.uk

Shingles Support Society
www.shinglessupport.org

Sickle Cell Society
www.sicklecellsociety.org

Spinal Injuries Association
www.spinal.co.uk

Stroke Association
www.stroke.org.uk

Trigeminal Neuralgia Association UK
www.tna.org.uk

UK Gout Society
www.ukgoutsociety.org

Vulval Pain Society
www.vulvalpainsociety.org

Contacts

You can contact the service by calling the numbers below: 

  • 0121 507 4866
  • 0121 507 5603
  • 0121 507 4344

Monday to Friday, 9am – 4pm.

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