The Chronic Pain Service treats and supports patients who have experienced pain for three months or more and is based in the Chronic Pain Unit (Hutchinson Suite), level 1, at Maidstone Hospital.
To be seen by our service, your GP will have to refer you to the central MSK (musculoskeletal) service who direct the referral to the community pain team or to the Chronic Pain Unit.
If your referral is directed to the Chronic Pain Unit, you will receive a clinic appointment to have a telephone consultation with one of our doctors.
Our outpatient clinics are run at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells hospitals, and at Sevenoaks Community Hospital. All procedures are carried out at Maidstone Hospital.
We help patients with a range of chronic pain problems, especially spinal pain, to improve their pain control and quality of life. We assess our patients clinically, but may request tests such as MRI and nerve conduction studies to work out the cause of their pain. We use a holistic approach to pain control, as one method does not work for everyone.
This could include:
- Conservative management – lifestyle advice, pacing, physiotherapy, hydrotherapy and medication optimisation
- Interventional treatments – injections can relieve pain and spasm and break the cycle of pain and immobility. We offer a wide range of interventional approaches including facet joint injections, sacroiliac joint injections, epidurals, nerve root blocks and plexus blocks
- Surgical referral – where necessary we will advise you if surgical referral would be beneficial
- Psychological treatments – there is good evidence for the links between good psychological health and pain control. Often talking therapies can reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms and improve coping strategies. We can provide advice and where necessary refer you on for psychological input.
Interventional treatments are performed in our dedicated interventional suite in the Chronic Pain Unit at Maidstone Hospital. They are carried out as day cases with local anaesthetic. Procedures are performed under X-ray or ultrasound guidance.
The key to managing chronic pain is physical rehabilitation. This will be regular stretching to reduce stiffness, and pacing all physical activities. The aim is to help you to function better which aids any healing process and slows any degenerative process. An injection helps us see if we can temporarily reduce the intensity of the pain to enable better rehabilitation.
Patient information leaflet
The Chronic Pain patient information leaflet contains:
- Information to help you prepare you for your procedure, such as an interventional treatment, at the Chronic Pain Unit
- How you will be admitted, and what we will do to make your stay as comfortable as possible
- Information on any necessary aftercare
You can also download these informative leaflets:
Information on medication
- Nortriptyline
- Gabapentin
- Amitriptyline
- Duloxetine
- Pregabalin
- Opioid information for patients
- Managing pain with over the counter medications
Please also read the DVLA guidelines on driving while using prescription painkillers.
Interventional pain procedures
A series of patient information leaflets, produced by the Faculty of Pain Medicine, provide information relating to commonly undertaken injections in pain medicine and answer some questions you may have.