Pathway through Pain with Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust

Summary

In 2012, Buckinghamshire Chronic Pain and Fatigue Management Service was one of the first NHS services to provide Pathway through Pain to its patients and offer both face-to-face and digital Pain Management Programmes (PMPs).

Patients referred to the service are offered a choice of joining a 10-week in-person group pain management course, guided self-help, or Pathway through Pain. The clinical team quickly found the digital PMP significantly reduced their administrative time and waiting lists, while also providing patients with self-empowerment and control over their treatment plan.

Recognising the benefits of effective digital interventions to meet the growing demand on Pain Management Services, the Trust conducted a research study evaluating Pathway through Pain for clinical effectiveness and cost savings in a real-world clinical setting. The study, published in the British Journal of Pain (2019), concluded a web-based PMP can be clinically effective, cost-saving and a useful addition to the treatments offered by Pain Services.

Pathway through Pain continues to be an integral part of the Trust’s Pain Management Service and is particularly convenient for patients with work or care commitments or mobility issues that make it difficult to attend face-to-face sessions.

Having adopted the digital PMP in earlier years, the Pain Management Service required only small changes in response to the restrictions due to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, with Pathway through Pain already providing a way for chronic pain patients to quickly, easily and flexibly access an effective PMP.