In the United Kingdom, all consultants in pain medicine/management have also been trained in anaesthesia. Pain medicine consultants are therefore dual qualified by both the Royal College of Anaesthetists and the Faculty of Pain Medicine. We adhere to the highest quality standard of patient care. In fact, the pain fellowship in the UK is the only fellowship programme which emphasizes on good technique and skill provision for examination of back and neck pain and performing spinal injections such as facet joint injections, epidural steroid injections, nerve blocks at the cervical, thoracic and lumbar levels and radiofrequency (rhizolysis) treatments. Therefore, pain consultants are much more experienced and familiar in diagnosing, investigating and treating spinal pain (back and neck pain) and are also experts in managing nerve pain arising from a variety of reasons.
The Royal College of Anaesthetists and the Faculty of Pain Medicine are both governing organisations that certify consultants by proving and demonstrating competency in that specific medical field. Consultants seeking fellowship must demonstrate their ample knowledge, judgment and clinical skills among other attributes, while also showing that they can serve as an expert in matters related to pain management and anaesthesia.
By being certified, we are proving to you, our patients, that we are knowledgeable, experienced and proficient in our field of pain medicine.