Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to issue guidance to hospital trusts on the treatment of pain experienced by adults with a damaged cortex.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Guideline, ‘Neuropathic pain in adults: pharmacological management in non-specialist settings’, updated July 2019, sets out evidence-based guidance for healthcare professionals in pharmacological treatments for neuropathic pain. This guidance can be found at the following link:

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg173

In addition, NICE is currently developing guidance on the assessment and management of chronic pain, with an expected publication date of 19 August 2020. Guidance scope for the NICE clinical guidance document in development can be found at the following link:

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/gid-ng10069/documents/final-scope