Dr Michael Coupe and Dr Andrew Souter
Administrator Mrs Delia Foster
01225 470157
delia.foster@nhs.net
WHAT IS CHRONIC PAIN AND HOW CAN WE HELP YOU MANAGE IT?
Chronic pain is defined as pain that lasts more than 3 months. Chronic in this sense just means 'persistent'. After 3 months injured tissues should have healed and other mechanisms may be contributing to ongoing pain.
Sometimes this can be due to an ongoing mechanical problem, such as arthritis in a joint. Often however pain becomes persistent when the pain system itself starts to become hyperactive. Pain consultants are trained to identify and treat persistent pain, of whatever cause, having made an assessment of the likely mechanisms underlying it.
Our consultants have undergone extensive training in the medical management of persistent pain.
Some long-term pain conditions are relatively straightforward to manage, and can be quickly and effectively treated with safe, well evidenced interventions such as spinal injections.
However, sometimes persistent pain requires a more complex holistic management plan. This plan may include: injection treatments, a tailored medication plan, exercise and physiotherapy and help reducing the psychological aspects of chronic pain. These different facets come together to achieve the aim of reducing the impact of persistent pain on your quality of life. Our consultants have many years of experience working both in the NHS and the private sector treating and providing management plans for patients with persistent pain.
Drs Coupe and Souter are both fellows of the Faculty of Pain medicine of the Royal College of Anaesthetists.
Admission to this faculty requires extensive training in pain medicine. This training has equipped your consultants to deliver holistic, multifaceted treatments for persistent pain of any type. Both Dr Coupe and Dr Souter are also practicing anaesthetists, this gives them extra skills that can be important in keeping you as comfortable and safe as possible during any intervention.
Our consultants have particular expertise in the management of pain originating in the spine.
They are able to deliver the widest range of targeted injection treatments, including (but not limited to) epidurals, nerve root blocks, dorsal root ganglion blocks, caudals, sacroiliac injections and facet joint injections. They are the only local clinicians able to perform the highly skilled and technical facet joint radiofrequency denervation (ablation) procedure, an effective treatment for some forms of low back pain.
Whatever your pain problem, our aim will be to produce, in partnership with you, a pain management plan. Depending on what aspects of pain management we recommend and interest you, this may include medication advice, interventional treatments, lifestyle modification advice, and onwards referral to our other specialist partners, including pain physiotherapy and pain psychology.
Our sole aims are to reduce your pain and, importantly, improve your quality of life.