Inpatient acute and Outpatient chronic pain teams

What we do:

‘Acute Pain’ is pain of recent onset and generally of limited duration. Commonly caused by surgery / trauma etc. All the wards and medical personnel should be well equipped to manage acute pain in their patients. Acute pain nurses are accessible along with consultant support for advice and help in special cases. Referral can be made via Meditech/v6 to Acute Pain Team.

‘Chronic Pain’ is long term in nature and can have a debilitating effect on all aspects of the patient’s lifestyle. There may be significant influence of bio-psycho-social factors contributing to the perception of chronic pain. Hence, management is mostly outpatient based and may involve a multidisciplinary approach. Referral can be made via Meditech/v6 to Chronic Pain Team.

The Acute Pain Service review patients with:

• Epidural infusion analgesia
• Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA)
• Nerve block infusion Devices
• Special non-surgical pain situations, eg fractured ribs, acute ischaemic limb pain etc

When patients are referred, specific information should be documented on the referral form:

• How long has the patient had their pain for?
• What investigations has the patient undergone?
• Is there a cause identified for the pain?
• Is regular and PRN analgesia prescribed?
• Are there any other ongoing problems, eg nausea or vomiting, allergies, intolerances, recurrent admissions, addiction or dependency concerns etc.

The chronic pain service is primarily outpatient based, accepting direct referrals from other specialties and from GP’s through Choose and Book referrals. The Outpatient Pain Clinics are located across the region to cover a large catchment area stretching from Peterlee to South Shields and Roker to Washington.

Psychology and Physiotherapy provide a multidisciplinary support. Suitable patients are pre-assessed to undergo either an individualised cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) or a group-based pain management programme (PMP).

Referral are discussed at a monthly MDT meeting.

Inpatient Pain Specialist Nurses: Faye Travis, Nova Wilson, Michelle Cook, Mandy Muir, Susan Hadfield

Inpatient Pain Service Lead Consultant: Dr Fiona Makin

Inpatient Consultant Anaesthetist: Dr Sarah Gibb, Dr Steven Traill, Dr Will Green

Chronic Pain Consultants: Dr Allistair Dodds, Dr Sreedhar Gudipati, Dr Kiran Koneti, Dr Amit Kumar, Dr Sanjay Varma.

The Acute Pain Inpatient service is covered during normal working ours, Monday – Friday:

South Tyneside Acute Pain Service           (Bleep-50024) Ext 2906-answer machine available.

Sunderland Acute Pain Service                   (Bleep – 51148) Ext 41246

Refer via Meditech/V6,                                 select                  ST Pain Ref – South Tyneside

                                                                                                       SRH Acute Pain -Sunderland

Out of hours contacts:

South Tyneside Acute Pain Team:             After 4pm First on call Bleep 50018. After 8pm Bleep 50016.

Sunderland Acute Pain Team:                     First On Call Emergency Anaesthetist Bleep 51351