The importance of access to multidisciplinary specialist pain services

We are pleased to note the publication of the Pharmaceutical Journal's article, Losing faith: the patients waiting years for specialist pain treatment, including statements from our Vice Dean, Dr Lorraine de Gray. The article acknowledges the importance of timely access to specialist pain services for people with chronic pain and the difficulty clinics currently face in meeting demand.

We welcome the recognition of our publication Core Standards for Pain Management Services in the UK (CSPMS), which is now setting the benchmark for CQC standards. CSPMS emphasises the importance of a multidisciplinary team in providing specialist pain management services, as the complexity of chronic pain demands a holistic management strategy. As noted by Dr de Gray, the standards set by CSPMS provide support for clinics to source funding to expand their offering.

The Faculty is committed to improving access and quality of services for patients as a strategic priority, but we recognise that improvement will only be possible by addressing the challenges facing our historically under resourced workforce.