What does the recent NICE guidance mean for pain clinics in this country?
Personal view from Alf Collins, Clinical Director for Personalised Care, NHS England and NHS Improvement
The recently published NICE guidance re: chronic pain management 1 has enjoyed a mixed reception. The purpose of the guidance is to improve the lives of people living with long term pain by improving the quality of pain management services across the NHS but many commentators, patient groups and national professional bodies have not been slow to criticise it, citing that implementation could lead to significant patient harm.…
Read more of this article
Researchers at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) are aiming to understand chronic pain experiences in and out of the UK’s current lockdown. Individuals are invited to participate in the survey.
Recently, Pain Alliance Europe conducted a 6-week short survey on Covid-19 and chronic pain in twelve languages to see the current situation of chronic pain patients in Europe.
A new report from Public Health England examines data on chronic pain in England and analyses inequalities in the experience of chronic pain. The report will be useful for those commissioning and delivering services for those experiencing chronic pain and policy makers in central and local government. The findings on inequalities include that chronic pain is more prevalent in women than men; in people from the Black ethnic group than other ethnicities; and in those in more deprived areas.
We know that managing chronic pain can be one of the most difficult aspects of primary care consultations for both doctors and patients. The new NICE guidelines, due to be published in January, will potentially have huge implications on the traditional way of practice.
Consultation deadline 14 September 2020
Health Education England e-Learning for Healthcare (HEE e-LfH) has worked with ESCAPE-pain and the Health Innovation Network to develop two e-learning resources, aimed at helping healthcare professionals and exercise instructors understand the principles behind the ESCAPE-pain programme – facilitating group education and exercise sessions for people living with chronic joint pain and learning how the programme may be implemented in their organisation.
