Written question asked by Lord Luce (Crossbench), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Earl Howe (Conservative) on Monday, 28 February 2011.

Health: Pain Management

Question: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action is being take to ascertain the variation in standards of pain management services in England.

Answer: We do not have recent information centrally on standards of pain management services in England. Following a recommendation in the 2008 annual report of the previous Chief Medical Officer, the department is funding a National Pain Audit, which recently completed its testing phase and will be rolled out from March 2011. Its primary purpose is to stimulate local action to improve the quality and outcomes of care by presenting comparative data about the performance of National Health Service provider organisations. It will also provide a broad overview of the state of provision of chronic pain services across England and of the extent of variations in standards. Among other information, the audit will collect and analyse data on the number of health professionals in each discipline working in each chronic pain facility.

Secondary information