The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has advised that it has been asked to develop a quality standard on pain management in young people and adults.

The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network guideline 136 on the management of pain has been identified as a possible development source alongside existing NICE guidance on pain management.

Health Education England is responsible for providing national leadership on education, training and workforce development in the National Health Service in England. The professional regulators, such as the General Medical Council, set the standards and outcomes for education and training and approve training curricula. Higher Education Institutions are responsible for ensuring the programmes they provide allow students to meet these standards and outcomes. Royal colleges, such as the Royal College of General Practitioners also have responsibility for developing curricula for doctors and nurses, in particular postgraduate curricula. This process ensures that healthcare professionals have the knowledge, skills and attitudes to provide high quality patient care, including in pain management, which is a required competency of all healthcare professionals.

Many patients with chronic pain can be successfully supported and managed through routine primary and secondary care pain management services. It is important that patients with the most serious pain management issues are able to access specialist care. A patient whose pain is particularly difficult to manage may be referred to a specialised pain management service. Under the care of an expert multidisciplinary team, patients may be offered specialised pain management programmes specifically and more complex drug treatments.

To support clinicians in the management of pain, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published several clinical guidelines on the treatment and management of different types of pain, such as migraine and back pain, as well as technical guidance on specific treatments, such as the use of opiates in palliative care and deep brain stimulation for chronic pain.

Health Education England is responsible for providing national leadership on education, training and workforce development in the National Health Service in England. The professional regulators, such as the General Medical Council, set the standards and outcomes for education and training and approve training curricula. Higher Education Institutions are responsible for ensuring the programmes they provide allow students to meet these standards and outcomes. Royal colleges, such as the Royal College of General Practitioners also have responsibility for developing curricula for doctors and nurses, in particular postgraduate curricula. This process ensures that healthcare professionals have the knowledge, skills and attitudes to provide high quality patient care, including in pain management, which is a required competency of all healthcare professionals.

Many patients with chronic pain can be successfully supported and managed through routine primary and secondary care pain management services. It is important that patients with the most serious pain management issues are able to access specialist care. A patient whose pain is particularly difficult to manage may be referred to a specialised pain management service. Under the care of an expert multidisciplinary team, patients may be offered specialised pain management programmes specifically and more complex drug treatments.

To support clinicians in the management of pain, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published several clinical guidelines on the treatment and management of different types of pain, such as migraine and back pain, as well as technical guidance on specific treatments, such as the use of opiates in palliative care and deep brain stimulation for chronic pain.

NHS England has welcomed the publication of the Core Standards for Pain Management report in the United Kingdom, published by the Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Royal College of Anaesthetists in October 2015. Andrew Baranowski, the Chair of NHS England’s Clinical Reference Group for Specialised Pain contributed to this work, which sets out core standards and key recommendations in the management of pain; the commissioning of pain management services and the development of the workforce.

The report is available at:

http://www.rcoa.ac.uk/system/files/FPM-CSPMS-UK2015.pdf

To raise awareness amongst healthcare professionals and help them recognise the symptoms complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) published a clinical guideline on the diagnosis, referral and management of the condition in May 2012. The guideline can be found at the following link:

www.rcplondon.ac.uk/guidelines-policy/pain-complex-regional-pain-syndrome

More general information on CRPS can be found on the National Health Service Choices website, alongside advice about living with chronic pain and links to patient support groups and organisations such as the British Pain Society:

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/complex-regional-pain-Syndrome/Pages/Introduction.aspx

The routine assessment and management of pain is a required competency of all healthcare professionals. Many patients with long term chronic pain, such as those with CRPS, can be successfully supported and managed through routine primary and secondary care pain management services. In addition to the RCP guideline, other sources of evidence based guidance to support clinicians includes the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guideline on the pharmacological management of neuropathic pain, which is relevant to the care of patients with CRPS.

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg173

it is important that patients with the most serious pain management issues are able to access specialist care. A patient whose pain is particularly difficult to manage may be referred to a specialised pain management service. Under the care of an expert multidisciplinary team, patients may be offered specialised pain management programmes specifically for CRPS and more complex drugs treatments.

To raise awareness amongst healthcare professionals and help them recognise the symptoms complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) published a clinical guideline on the diagnosis, referral and management of the condition in May 2012. The guideline can be found at the following link:

www.rcplondon.ac.uk/guidelines-policy/pain-complex-regional-pain-syndrome

More general information on CRPS can be found on the National Health Service Choices website, alongside advice about living with chronic pain and links to patient support groups and organisations such as the British Pain Society:

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/complex-regional-pain-Syndrome/Pages/Introduction.aspx

The routine assessment and management of pain is a required competency of all healthcare professionals. Many patients with long term chronic pain, such as those with CRPS, can be successfully supported and managed through routine primary and secondary care pain management services. In addition to the RCP guideline, other sources of evidence based guidance to support clinicians includes the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guideline on the pharmacological management of neuropathic pain, which is relevant to the care of patients with CRPS.

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg173

it is important that patients with the most serious pain management issues are able to access specialist care. A patient whose pain is particularly difficult to manage may be referred to a specialised pain management service. Under the care of an expert multidisciplinary team, patients may be offered specialised pain management programmes specifically for CRPS and more complex drugs treatments.

The Department's National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.

The researcher-led workstream of the Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation programme (funded by the Medical Research Council and managed by the NIHR) is currently funding a £0.7 million trial of low-dose intravenous immunoglobulin treatment for CRPS.

The NIHR Clinical Research Network is recruiting patients to studies of mycophenolate treatment for longstanding CRPS and electrical sensory discrimination therapy for relief of chronic pain in CRPS.

The information requested is not collected.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published several clinical guidelines on different health conditions which include the treatment and management of pain and chronic pain.

These include low back pain (CG88) and neuropathic pain (CG173). The clinical guideline on low back pain is currently being updated, with an expected publication date of November 2016. Copies of these guidelines have been attached.

NICE has been asked to develop a clinical guideline on pain management for young people and adults, but the schedule for this work has yet to be finalised. The provisional schedule will be made available on the NICE website in due course.