Workforce Planning

The Faculty collects data on the Pain Medicine medical workforce

This allows the Faculty to advise on current and future training needs and has been used to contribute to submissions to national data collections.

FPM censuses

Censuses have been undertaken in 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2022.  The data collected has been used to contribute to submissions to various UK-wide national stakeholders, including the Department of Health and Health Education England.

Key Themes from the 2022 census

  • The proportion of female doctors in Pain Medicine has increased and the workforce is getting older;
  • The vast majority of Pain Consultants list Anaesthesia as their base specialty. The forthcoming Credential in Specialist Pain Medicine will open the route of training to clinicians from a range of specialty backgrounds, ensuring a wider potential future workforce;
  • The majority of the respondents’ scope of pain practice was entirely in adult pain medicine, with 5% undertaking a role purely in paediatric pain medicine;
  • The majority of doctors in Pain Medicine plan to reduce their working hours and/or retire earlier because of recent changes to the NHS Pension Scheme, Pension Tax Reforms or the McCloud Remedy;
  • There are significant challenges in recruitment. 48% of Clinical Leads reported they had vacant consultant posts in their pain department and 69% have hired locum staff in the past year to manage workforce pressures.

The full census report will be available soon.

Previous census data can be found here.

Appointment Advisory Committee (AAC) Data

The table below shows the number of Consultants posts with an interest in Pain Medicine available since 2007. The table also shows the number of AAC panels which were cancelled during the same period; panels are cancelled for a number of reasons however, the most common cause is a lack of suitable applicants. 

Year

Consultant Posts

AACs Cancelled

2007

32

3

2008

38

3

2009

38

1

2010

31

6

2011

19

0

2012

39

3

2013

31

2

2014

46

8

2015

48

6

2016

37

7

2017

44

3

2018

43

6

2019 36 3
2020 21 5
2021 17 1
2022 20 1

Figures taken from the RCoA AAC data.

What to know more about commissioning of services?
Read on to find out more about how specialist pain services are commissioned in the UK.