“Our partnership with the pain intervention team at Kings transforms what we can offer to our patients.” It’s for that very reason that Dr Alison Landon, Palliative Care Physician at St Christopher’s is keen to invite all hospice clinicians, both doctors and nurses, as well as pain consultants and their teams, to the Sharp End of Pain Control conference, being hosted at the hospice on 23 May.
Breaking boundaries in pain relief
Alison says her clinical colleagues in the hospice and counterparts from King’s College Hospital have learned hugely from each other and that patients have benefited enormously from the additional expertise of this acute hospital specialist team.
“I’ve learned hugely about procedures, drugs and their management and I think the team from King’s have learned about ‘total pain’ and the holistic approach from us,” adds Alison, who’s worked with the Pain Intervention Team from King’s throughout her 15 years at the hospice.
“They come and see a number of patients once a week in the inpatient unit or in the hospice outpatient clinic and make a massive difference to them.”
So, what does that mean in practical terms?
Like all palliative care clinicians, Alison sees a lot of pain and wants to be able to manage it. Sometimes, she and her colleagues at the hospice require additional expertise to achieve that pain control.
“We are really privileged to have our close working relationship with the team at King’s and we want to share with clinicians in other hospices what they do and how the relationship works – performing interventional pain techniques usually only done in a hospital setting.”
This is the first time since the pandemic that St Christopher’s has hosted what was an annual pain control conference, and Alison is keen that delegates hear about the practice as well as the theory.
“I think it is a relatively unusual relationship for a number of reasons. Partly because people haven’t thought of it. Also, I think some hospital doctors might be worried about performing some procedures in a hospice. You need the right drugs and the right facilities but first and foremost you need to find out who’s in your area and start a conversation.”
“We want to make people aware of the role of interventional pain in the palliative population and appreciate what can be done in a hospice setting as well as understand the value of partnership.”
On the day, delegates will get to hear details of a two-year review of all the cases that involved the Pain Intervention Team, hear live from a patient with lived experience of an intrathecal pump and watch a video of the ‘before and after’ of a patient having an epidural.
Apart from an openness to exploring this collaborative approach, delegates will also be encouraged to come to the conference with tricky cases to be discussed when they split into groups.
To find out more about The Sharp End of Pain Control and to book your place click here.
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