The Manchester and Salford Pain Centre is one of the country’s leading clinics for the management of all forms of pain.
We are an interdisciplinary clinical team of doctors, physiotherapists, psychologists and nurses who are expert in managing all forms of pain ably supported by reception and administration staff.
Referrals are received from GPs and from within the Trust.

We also encourage referral of patients with complicated pain conditions from other pain clinics for our more advanced treatment options such as intensive pain management programmes and spinal cord stimulation.

Once we receive your referral you will be asked to complete and return a questionnaire about your pain. The information you provide will help us understand more about the pain you are experiencing and how it is affecting you, both physically and emotionally.

These questionnaires are an important part of your assessment.

They help us to allocate you to the most appropriate clinic, and allow more time during your appointment for discussion and explanation.
 

Clinical Teams

Medical Team. 

The Medical component of the pain centre consists of 6 consultants, experienced in the treatment of acute, chronic and perioperative pain. They work closely with the nursing, physiotherapy and clinical psychology teams.
The medical team roles include:-

• Acute pain ward rounds – assessing and treating pain experienced by inpatients within the hospital. These patients may be suffering from pain post-operatively, or have other complex medical or surgical issues contributing to chronic pain.
   
• Outpatient clinics – the assessment of a variety of medical conditions related to chronic pain. As part of this process interventions may be offered as well as the beginning of the rehabilitation pathway working closely with the physiotherapy and clinical psychology teams. Medication management is also integral to medical assessment.
   
• Medical Procedures and Interventions
   
• Medical support to  Pain Management Programs
   
• Teaching  - The pain centre is a vibrant learning environment supporting the development of a variety of trainees, including various levels of pain, anesthetic and palliative care junior doctors. Curriculum development for undergraduates has also been a recent focus of our efforts.
   
• Research – The pain centre is actively involved in research collaborating with the Human Pain Research Group at Salford Royal in understanding the complex neurobiological changes which occur in chronic pain as well as in Spinal Cord Stimulation. 
   
• Major Trauma – The medical team also support the assessment and treatment of major trauma and the inpatient rib fracture treatment service. 

The Specialist Pain Nursing team

The Specialist Pain Nursing team, provides an in-patient service for acute, post-operative and trauma pain 7 days a week.

Our vision is to foster a “Patient centred partnership” with patients and their carers/families, which leads to an effective, efficient, personal, inclusive and quality driven pain management service.

As a team of Specialist Nurses we are committed to ensuring services are in place to plan and mange a wide range of pain conditions from trauma, post-operative pain, and also meet the needs of in-patients where persistent pain predominates.

What do the Specialist Pain Nurses do?

• Adopt a “Quick response approach” to support the ward teams to assess, treat and manage patients with acute pain following surgery or trauma.
• Daily pain management ward rounds
• Prescribe pain medications to ensuring timely access to the most appropriate analgesia regimens for your pain.
• Operate a pre-operative pain service for patients who have a history of persistent / chronic pain prior to their hospital admission for surgery so that an appropriate individual pain management plan can be considered.
• Collaborate with other members of the health care team caring for you e.g. doctors, nurses and physiotherapists.
• Work collaboratively to support pain management where misuse syndromes exist.
• Liaise with the Pain Centre clinicians for specialist advice in long term pain condition.
• Support Inpatient Pain ward rounds with the Pain Consultants
• Work closely with the Major trauma team, to support clinicians in the management of polytrauma where complex needs exist including the provision of an expert fractured ribs service• Provide training and guidance for hospital doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and pharmacists in the management of pain.
• Develop and maintain Pain Management Guidelines and Protocols to promote safe and effective pain management strategies across the organisation

We provide a wide range of pain management strategies which commonly include:

• Pain Assessment
• Analgesia Review
• Oral analgesia strategies
• Patient controlled analgesia
• Continuous Epidural infusions
• Local Anaesthetic Wound Infusions

Physiotherapy Team

The physiotherapy team consists of five physiotherapists who specialise in the field of pain management.  

You may see a physiotherapist at your first appointment as we run regular assessment clinics both individually and in conjunction with the pain consultants and specialist nurses.  

If after an initial assessment it is thought that you may benefit from pain management physiotherapy or a pain management programme they you may go on to attend further appointments with one of the centre’s physiotherapists.

The physiotherapy team utilise a combination of exercise therapy, education and advice on strategies such as pacing and goal setting to help people with chronic pain work towards their personal rehabilitation goals.  

The physiotherapists work within a cognitive behavioural approach and work closely with the clinical psychology team providing multidisciplinary joint treatment sessions and pain management programmes.  

Overall, the pain centre physiotherapists aim to enable people with chronic pain to develop self-management strategies to improve their physical function and quality of life despite their pain.  

The physiotherapy team also provide training and educational sessions for other healthcare professionals and local universities.

Clinical Psychology Team

The clinical psychology team consists of 2 Consultant Clinical psychologists and 3 specialist pain psychologists.

The psychologists are experts in helping patients manage their pain.

They help patients to understand chronic pain, and deal with the knock on consequences of chronic pain, such as poor sleep, memory impairment, poor relations with other people, lack of confidence, fear of movement and worries about the future.

The Psychology team provide the Introduction to Managing Pain sessions and are fundamental in delivering Pain Management Programs along with the Physiotherapists and Medical Doctors.