Pain: Medical Treatments

(asked on 9th April 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the recommendations on page 75 of the Faculty of Pain Medicine published in The Core Standards for Pain Management Services and the recommendations on page 8 of the General Medical Council published in Good practice in prescribing and managing medicines and devices, what assessment he has made of the potential benefit to people with chronic pain of receiving an annual review for their pain management services.


Answered by
Seema Kennedy Portrait
Seema Kennedy
This question was answered on 12th April 2019

No specific assessment has been made of the potential benefit to people with chronic pain of receiving an annual review for their pain management services.

Whilst ultimately a matter for local processes and individual clinicians, annual reviews of patients with long term conditions or ongoing medication needs are a routine part of patient care. Annual reviews are also a key feature in guidance on the management of long-term diseases and disorders produced by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), such as ‘Neuropathic pain in adults’, and in clinical guidance produced by other organisations. NICE is in the process of developing a new clinical guideline ‘Chronic pain: assessment and management’, due for publication in August 2020.

More information about this work can be found at the following link:

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/indevelopment/gid-ng10069

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