to think Chronic Pain should be given a higher priority for NHS funding?

[NearlyMrsCustardsHardHat]

It's not going to kill you but it is sure as hell going to make your life utterly miserable if managed poorly, but why is Chronic Pain so badly managed and funded within the NHS?

I am fortunate to have been refered to a fantastic pain management clinic but every time I have to book a follow up appointment they have to 'overbook' in order to get me in within the required time frame the consultant has asked for (usually 12 weeks) these overbookings are usually 3-4 patients per appointment slot. It's ridiculous!

I'm mystified as to why it's so low down the list of priorities for a lot of medics. If chronic pain were managed better you'd see less people with obesity problems, less people with depression, more people rejoining the work force...

AIBU to think it should be a high priority within the NHS?

It's not a 'sexy enough' illness to warrant much NHS funding.

YABU, and I'm saying that as someone who also suffers from chronic pain. The NHS is streatched to breaking point, people are die when there are treatments that could save them but no funding for the treatments. In an ideal world there would be more appointments available, but the money just isn't there and pretty much every department of the NHS is in the same position.

I'm glad the pain clinic is helping you though, did bugger all for me, apparently I have the wrong kind of pain!

I have chronic pain. I always manage to get an appointment within the time specified by the Consultant and the pain nurse rings me once a month.

I never manage to get an appointment on time with my orthopaedic surgeon or my spinal surgeon, though!

Its not a case of being low down the priority list for medics. Decisions about the relative funding for different services arent made at that level. Amongst other reasons, chronic pain, like many other specialities, doesnt attract enough public interest to allow it to 'compete' against the other demands made on limited funds.

people die not people are die, should have proof read before posting

Yanbu

I think everyone with a medical condition would want theirs to be better funded.

I personally think mental health should be better funded. It's notoriously under-funded and mental illness does kill.

YNBU - It's not just pain clinics and those of us with 'non-serious' pain = palliative care can be very lacking, dying people left screaming in hospital beds. Pain itself just isn't always enough of a priority.

My FIL was dying of bowel cancer in hospital and it took nearly a week to sort out his pain management and even then they couldn't always be bothered to administer it on time.

Having said that thye can also be very very good - both my grandparents had some kind of nerve block when they had various joints replaced to ensure they would have good pain relief when the anaesthetic wore off. It can be done it's about organisation as well as funding and basically giving a toss.

Thing is, when you start asking that, then the next question is - higher priority than what?

I've got fm and am in fairly constant pain and am on my own with it. It'd be nice if they gave a shit , but, I mean, what would I bump it up over. If there was some sort of list. Which I'm sure there isn't.

For every higher priority - there has to be one sent lower. Who would choose what that was?

Decent pain management takes quite a bit of imagination and intelligence to sort out. Sadly, both these things tend to be somewhat lacking in modern healthcare today

It doesn't sound as though your pain clinic is being properly organised OP. You need to be pushy.

I'd like them to actually listen and try and do something about it, rather than just dismiss it. my pain is related to thyroid function and an increase in medication, or better medication, would make it stop, but they can't be bothered to do even that. I self medicate and lo and behold the severe muscle pain goes away. add in all the poor people who have not even been diagnosed with thyroid deficiency as the UK reference range is so wide - and there's a whole lot of people out there (or should I say 'women' as they are usually women) being told they have fibromyalgia, or cfs, or depression, when actually all they need is some thyroid replacement (of course, not in all cases, but plenty still)
grrrrr

I find that there is a distinct pecking order of chronic conditions with - no offence to any diabetics reading - diabetes at the top. Complicated, cross-specialty problems without an obvious primary diagnosis, such as the kind of thing that tend to manifest as chronic pain, are largely in the 'too hard' pile for anyone even to test the OP's theory that better pain management would have cumulative benefits for the patient.

Also, some pain medication is very expensive! So better managed pain on lower doses of drugs, is actually cheaper for the NHS too.

The pain team themselves have to split their time between the acute sufferers, often terminally ill, and so of course the chronic sufferers (like my DH) are going to get put to one side. And then there's the 'it's all in your mind' aspect of it - as I'm sure I'm about to discover, my DH will no longer qualify for DLA and be expected to rise majestically from his wheelchair and go and get a job. Diabetes - you can test for it, people know what it is, it has a definite treatment plan and it has targets. Tick, tick, tick, tick. Chronic pain hits none of the same buttons. :(

The pain may not kill me, but taking the pain killers as often as I need them might.

Aunt had same diagnosis 25 years before me. Her medication has given her Parkinson's :(

Sorry to hear that, Hebiegebies :( My dh is on hormone replacement because his own supply was buggered by taking morphine for so long. And his teeth are in a dire state partly because of the dry mouth caused by opiates. So one treatment begets another problem, and then another ... it doesn't feel like anyone's looking at the big picture either in terms of the overall wellbeing of the patient or of the spiralling costs to the NHS of one thing causing another.

YANBU - but I say this as someone who is working within and a patient within a breaking NHS (which the reforms WILL NOT help, at all).

My FiL (who is poised to die in the next 24-48 hours) still has no follow up app with the oncologist, 8 weeks after seeing a radiotherapy consultant who couldn't treat him. 8 weeks wait for someone who was given anywhere between 2 and 24 weeks to live. The app will be far far too late now, and we'll be left wondering if the oncologist could have made a difference.

I am waiting for a colposcopy. 4 weeks wait to see the consultant (who I'm already under) with very worrying symptoms and some abnormal blood tests. Not sure how soon colposcopy can be done.

The mental health services I'm working in? 26 weeks wait for psychology assessment. 4-8 weeks for routine first app with psychiatrist. CPN's with case loads of 55 patients.

So yes, chronic pain should be given a higher priority - but where can this gap be filled when thousands of front line NHS posts are being scrapped?

By the way - off my soapbox - sorry you are struggling and hope there is a better set up soon for you.

I have had chronic pain for 14 years. Everyday in pai n. I'm 29. I would love the NHS to put chronic pain at the top of the funding list and in an ideal world it would be. But I'm realistic. But this pain will not kill me, my mums cancer will kill her. So I'd much rather funding went towards saving lives.
I also think theres a lot of wastage of funds in the NHS. A lot of overpaid management and mismanagement of funds. But that might be another thread.

Sorry YABU and I have chronic pain. Found the pain clinic to be great. But there are so many other competing priorities.

Pain clinics and the focus on chronic pain is actually pretty recent. It used to be treated just by your GP.

And I agree that serious mental health conditions are much more undertreated/underfunded by the NHS. My DP has bipolar, so sadly i know this from personal experience.

It is a horrible situation we now find ourselves in with an outstretched nhs that appears to run like the rest of the public sector and is top heavy with pen pushers who say all the buzz words but do no actions.

I would love it personally if the overall priority shifted from extending life to providing quality of life. Provide the latter and end up with the former being the thought behind that. But it Will never happen while emotions run so high with certain causes.

Urgh i hate using my phone on here!

The NHS all but died today. None of this is not the will of any medic I know. Pain clinics will be loss making in the brave new world of "mixed funding". YABU to blame a medic for lack of priority and what would you sacrifice to increase the priority but YADNBU to wish for a better service - you deserve it, chronic pain can be bloody awful.

YANBU.

Having said, that, it's not just this area which is in need of better support, funding and shorter waiting times. These problems affect pretty much the whole NHS.

YANBU