The British Pain Society has a membership of over 1,400 and is involved in all aspects of pain and its management through the work of the Council, Committees and Working Parties.
Willow Jacky writes:
This edition of the British Pain Society contains a full article on the DWP~AtoS Work Capability Assessment (WCA) and how it is failing chronic pain patients.
The WCA is unanimously condemned by the Doctors and Consultant experts in the field of Chronic Pain Management.
Here is an extract:
‘It is certainly making it harder for us to do our job of supporting patients to become more active and less distressed by their pain, not to mention the additional burden of filling in forms, dealing with the phone calls from patients in distress, and risk managing patients who have become suicidal.
‘As health professionals, we are in a position to comment on what we are seeing.
‘We are encouraged to see that Paul Burstow, Care Services Minister, has conceded that chronic pain be considered as a long-term health condition (House of Commons, Hansard Written Answers for 01 Feb 2012).
‘It is good news that vehicles such as the Chronic Pain Policy Coalition and the Pain Summit are driving this agenda forward.
‘But it is early days, and there is more work to do before there is proper acknowledgement within the Parliament and policy of the condition of chronic pain.
‘We hope that through writing this article we will encourage others with similar concerns to join us in calling for a fairer work capability assessment process that takes into account the specialist nature of long-term health conditions including chronic pain.
‘We are heartened that the Council of the Society has taken this issue seriously, and we would welcome comments from members as to their experience and thoughts.’
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE:
