AUSTRALIAN CLINICS SURVEYED: STRUCTURE
A recent survey of 15 clinics revealed some interesting material.
Structure
Anaesthetists are the most common practitioners, followed by neurosurgeons, nursing staff and psychologists. Tumour specialists from cancer clinics come next. Occupational therapists and surgeons are not usually associated with the clinics.
Most of the staff involved with the clinics are consultants. The core of the staff may be as few as two individuals. But, more often, it seems to be variable with the co-ordinator as the only constant member.
What may happen is that an anaesthetist, as co-ordinator, may consider that your pain is not of physical origin alone and you would be referred to a consultant psychiatrist. The psychiatrist, in turn, might refer you to a psychologist for further assessment for therapy.
The main drawback is that you would not be seen by this group as a team but in a series of individual interviews among the specialists in the unit.
A look at the number, and kind, of patients seen in the 15 clinics reveals that there are comparatively few in-patients. The seven institutes studied average only four a week. The numbers of in-patients range from none to ten for both males and females. For outpatients, the numbers range from two to eighty for males and two to 120 for females.
Referral between specialists is the most efficient way of organising a pain clinic. An alternative is a day clinic. For example, the Royal North Shore Hospital and the Melbourne Pain Management Clinic. The age of patients ranges from 12 to 60 plus.
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