Acupuncture

Pain Management Clinic (PMC)

Please download our leaflet pdf: Pain Management Clinic if you are pressed for time, otherwise please read on.


Pain, pain, go away

Chronic pain conditions affect a large proportion of people around the world. In the UK, almost 10 million people suffer pain daily resulting in a major impact on their quality of life and days off work.

Chronic pain is when pain has lost its usefulness in warning us that we need to seek treatment and has becomes continuous and long-term. This naturally keeps people from their normal activities and can lead to a life of suffering. Most people living with chronic pain believe they have exhausted all their available treatment options and their symptoms don’t improve; leaving them anxious and depressed.

If this applies to you or someone you know, we have developed a clinic where the focus is entirely on relieving pain and restoring functionality and a degree of normality for people suffering with chronic problems, without drugs.


Pain Management Clinic (PMC)

The Pain Management Clinic programme runs primarily on Tuesday afternoons at the Leigham Practice (though other times may be possible on request). Treatments consist of a variety of methods including acupuncture, low level laser therapy and infra red heat therapy together with a range of stress relief techniques that have been found to help relieve pain.

Our acupuncture team consist of two highly experienced professionals, Susana Pires and Lora MacFarlane. The Pain Management Clinic is run by Susana Pires, who has a special interest in chronic painful conditions working within a multidisciplinary team consisting of physiotherapists, osteopaths and massage therapists.

The aim of the clinic is help chronic pain sufferers to reduce their pain, to manage their pain and to improve their quality of life.


Access to the PMC

The Pain Management Clinic is for those who are suffering from chronic pain for at least 6 months and where the underlying condition has been investigated medically by the GP or specialist medical team. It is also for problems where other appropriate treatments have been undertaken but been unsuccessful or only partially successful and more relief is sought.

Initially, a normal acupuncture appointment is made with Susana or Lora. A thorough history of the complaint is taken and treatment is also given. Susana will discuss whether she feels you are suitable for the PMC. Suitable patients will be offered the option of attending.


Intensive treatment with reduced costs

Once your problems have been assessed and treated for the first time in a normal clinic, your second appointment will be in the PMC. Since your treatment plan will have already been developed Susana will know exactly what is required. From the moment you arrive you will be given treatment as quickly as possible in order to maximise the benefit of your treatment. It is very important to allow plenty of time to arrive with time to spare as the clinic starts and ends promptly. It is also very important to consider to dress appropriately as the time taken to change can impact upon your treatment time.


Duration of treatment

Normal acupuncture appointments are 45 minutes, whereas the PMC appointments are 30 minutes. Time is saved from the ‘consultation’ part of the treatment with the focus firmly on the ‘treatment’. By reducing the appointment time whilst maximising the ‘treatment’ the cost of PMC appointments are proportionally less. In most cases treatment will be offered on a weekly basis.

We hope that providing treatments with all the benefits at reduced costs will allow these appointments to be more affordable for people over time.

Susana will build in to your program review periods where there will be an opportunity to discuss how much progress you are making and allowing your treatment to be tweaked, or adjusted slightly, in light of your response to treatment. She assesses progress using research based questionnaires to objectively chart and monitor your progress and is able to communicate with your GP or specialist team as appropriate.