The first appointment

The First Appointment

The Pain Services run as a multidisciplinary unit.  We see pain as affecting all parts of people’s lives.  As such we approach management from different direction- including medications, intervention, activity strategies and psychological interventions.


You may be seen  by a medical specialist, along with a psychologist, pain nurse, or physiotherapist.  As we are a teaching hospital there may be times when we have medical or nursing students.

At other times you may see a Specialist Clinical Psychologist, Specialist Physiotherapist or Medical Physician or Specialist pain Nurse on their own.  Its not always important to have a medical doctor at the first review.  Importantly as we all work closely together, we are able to internally discuss patient progress and often we ask our other colleagues to provide support.


The appointments lasts between 30 and 90 minutes

  • During this time we will give you the chance to describe your pain and how it affects your life.  You will be asked about your pain history, medications, functionality, past medical and surgical history, something about your social history, life events and how you cope with pain.

  • You may have a physical examination. This does not occur with our psychologist or pain nurse.

  • At the end we will discuss some outcomes

  • Outcomes include

    • Confirmation of present management plan & discharge
    • Suggestions for changes to medications (change, increase or decrease)
    • Possibility of intervention (eg injection, local anaesthetic, botox etc)
    • Refer to other specialty (e.g. physiotherapy, psychology, pain nurse, surgeon, physician, other pain clinic)
    • Combination of above