Pain management

If you have a pain management appointment with us, here is what to expect.

Before your pain management appointment

The focus of your first pain management appointments will be to understand your pain and the impact it has on you and your life. This helps our specialist clinical team to understand how we may be able to support you.  

Medication and pain interventions (e.g. spinal injection) can sometimes be an appropriate part of pain management. Our clinical team will discuss the options based on the risks and benefits, and what is likely to be most effective for you.

A key part of pain management is to find ways to reduce the impact of your pain and increase your ability to continue to do things you enjoy and which matter to you. 

First appointments are typically between 30-60 minutes and can be by telephone, video or in-person.

To prepare for your appointment, we suggest that you: 

• Have an up-to-date list of any medications you take and medical conditions you have. 
• Think about any questions or worries you have about your pain or past treatment.
• Think about what you have stopped doing or are doing less because of your pain (this could be activities you do alone or with friends or loved ones).
• Think about what is important to you about your care.

During your appointment

We’ll ask questions about your pain and may ask you to do some movements.

In some cases we may ask your permission to move or press on areas of your body to understand how this impacts on your pain. 

We will discuss the things we think might be beneficial for you, and decide together whether there are things you’d like to try. 

If the options of support we’re able to offer are not things you’d like to try we can try to identify other services that you might find helpful.

Changing or cancelling an appointment

If you can no longer attend an appointment, then letting us know early often means it can be used by someone else who is waiting. If you don’t already have the contact details for the service your appointment is with, you can find them on your local service page.

Got a question?

Get in touch with our team now.