Stepping Hill Hospital's acute pain service - which provides specialist pain support, advice and relief - has just celebrated 30 years of caring for patients.

It has supported over 25,000 patients since it was introduced in 1993.

The need for a specialist pain care service was established at this time, and when the service began it had only two dedicated members of staff; consultant Dr Kevin O'Sullivan and specialist pain nurse Jill Hulme-Duvall.

Jill is still working in the service today, alongside five other colleagues, including consultants, nurse specialists, and specialist pharmacists. Kevin has now retired, but joined the current team for a lunchtime celebration for the service's birthday.

The service provides acute pain support for patients in the hospital, undertaking daily ward rounds at the hospital, providing advice on the management of acute pain, and reviewing patients that have received input from their service. It works collaboratively with other staff on the ward, and is also closely linked to the outpatient chronic pain service.

In the early years of the service, the focus of care was mainly on post-operative pain management using patient-controlled analgesia pumps, but over the years the service has developed and evolved. It still sees patients post-operatively, but also regularly reviews patients with conditions such as fractured ribs, pancreatitis, back pain, severe acute pain or the flare up of complex persistent pain. It also provides preoperative education to patients around pain as well.

It has introduced a number of innovations over the years, including the use of local anaesthetic blocks to improve pain management and reduce the need for opioid analgesia. Current projects under its clinical lead Dr Tom Walton include the introduction of local anaesthetic knee blocks within orthopaedic surgery.

The service has also won several national and regional awards in recent years recognising its high quality of care, including the 'Pain Consultant of the Year' 'Pain Nurse of the Year' and 'Allied Healthcare Professional' of the year awards from the National Pain Symposium, and a place in the finals of the Health Service Journal Patient Safety Awards. 

Stockport NHS Foundation Trust Medical Director Andrew Loughney said "I'd like to wish everyone at the Stockport Acute Pain Service a very happy 30th anniversary, which is a great opportunity to celebrate the many thousands of patients they have helped with their pain over the years. They do fantastic work and we look forward to them caring for many more patients in the years to come."

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