Pain Service
Our acute pain service provides patients who are undergoing surgery with safe and effective pain management. The service is led by a Consultant Anaesthetist and run by Nurses on a day to day basis to provide our patients with good postoperative pain control with minimal side effects to help speed your recovery after surgery. The Acute Pain Service also reviews analgesia regimes for patients on Medical Wards who are experiencing Acute Pain.
We offer a chronic pain service for assessment and pain management at Darent Valley Hospital, Dartford and at Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup. This includes the management of patients with chronic pain problems which typically include back pain, sciatica and neck pain performing minimally invasive procedures such as radiofrequency treatments, epidural injection, facet joint injections in the back and neck (for pain arising due to arthritis), plexus block, nerve block, cryotherapy, trigger point injections for pain in muscle groups and management of neuropathic pain which arises secondary to nerve damage.
Our service
- The Acute Pain Service aims to ensure all patients have access to safe and effective pain management from admission to discharge. These patients can be both surgical and medical.
- To provide specialist pain management advice and clinical support to staff on how best to manage your postoperative pain.
- Provide education and clinical support to doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals to improve their pain management knowledge.
- We use various ways to control postoperative pain ranging from medicine and tablets and injections to using devices to administer analgesia via various routes.
We provide
- Pre- and post- operative pain management advice
- At least once daily pain management ward rounds, Monday – Friday
- Troubleshooting pain problems
- Devising pain management regimes to control patients admitted with a pain problem including oral analgesics, intramuscular/subcutaneous injections, intravenous patient controlled analgesia and patient controlled epidural analgesia
- Ensuring the patients’ pain management regime is suitable for discharge