Pain Management (Pain Clinic)

Acute Pain is pain that comes on quickly but generally lasts for a shorter period of time than Chronic Pain. Acute Pain is usually experienced in response to an injury or trauma to a certain part of the body.

Beacon Hospital’s acute pain service provides effective and safe pain management to patients in our care. Our Pain Team understand that patients experience varying levels of pain and as such, use a number of different techniques to ensure our patients are kept comfortable.

Some methods of managing inpatient pain include, but are not limited to; oral medications, intravenous medications and computerised pumps which the patients themselves control. These are known as Patient Controlled Analgesia Pumps, or PCA.

Chronic Pain is any pain which lasts beyond a normal healing time of what experts would expect. It generally lasts longer than three months and sometimes the actual cause can be unknown.

Chronic Pain can begin gradually or can have a sudden onset. Where it begins suddenly, it is most commonly seen to begin around the time of a traumatic or emotional event. It can also be caused by a chronic condition a patient may be suffering from.

Chronic Pain can be felt in a specific part of the body or it can be more generalised and widespread throughout the body. It may be continuous or intermittent with occasional flare ups.

Treatment plans for Chronic Pain tend to be a longer process and may combine a number of therapies. Therapies may include:

• Pain Medications: Oral, intravenous or delivered via PCS (Patient Controlled Analgesia Pumps)
• Interventional Therapies: These include joint injections, nerve blocks and other procedures which help to treat pain.
• Exercise and Physical Therapy: This includes Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Hydrotherapy, Transdermal Electronic Nerve Stimulation (TENS) and more. Gentle targeted exercise programs may be introduced by your Physiotherapist to help reduce pain and strengthen the body.
• Psychological Therapy: Psychological Therapies can have huge benefits in helping patients to cope better with their pain and management stress and other negative factors which can manifest as a result of this chronic pain.

Your Pain Medicine Consultant may prescribe any combination of the above and more in order to get you the best possible result from treatment.