Pain management East

This service provides advice, guidance and support for patients with persistent pain who are struggling to manage, are experiencing significant difficulties and/or distress. We provide a number of care plan options, including a pain management programme, pain management information sessions, individual occupational therapy, physiotherapy, psychological therapy as well as couple/ family therapy and medical review.

Location and parking

The majority of our clinics are held at The Leaf Hospital, St Anne's Road, Eastbourne, BN21 2HW.

Public transport links (bus and train) are a 5-10 minute walk up hill to The Leaf Hospital.

There is a small car park which has several free disabled parking spaces. There is also free on-street parking nearby.

When clinics are busy there is a high demand for parking spaces, so we would recommend arriving early for appointments to allow time to park.

We also have some clinics and groups at Grove House, The Grove, Crowborough, TN6 1NY. There is a free on-site car park and some street parking in the surrounding area.

Service days and opening hours

We are open Monday- Friday, 9am - 5pm and our telephone lines are open from 8am-12pm and 3pm – 7pm.

Contact details

Tel: 0300 300 0003 for enquiries and appointments - ask to speak to a 'pain champion'.

Email: sussexmskeast.enquiries@nhs.net

Service inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion crietria

The presence of persistent pain causing significant disability and / or distress
The patient is able to communicate in English (using a translator if need be)
The patient is willing to participate and prioritise attendance to appointments
Physical symptoms have been investigated fully (treatable injury or disease addressed / ruled out). However, presence of an ongoing disease under management eg. cancer, arthritis is not an exclusion factor.

Exclusion criteria / reasons for delaying referral

The patient is physically too unwell / disabled to cope with attending outpatient sessions (use of a wheelchair/scooter does not preclude participation in a group)
Communication difficulties which cannot be addressed and preclude ability to participate
Primary mental health problem (requiring treatment before attending)
Primary drug / alcohol problem.

Pain Society guidelines (2013) state: “ There are no grounds for discrimination on the basis of age, literacy, litigation or judgement of motivation”.

Make a referral

We accept referrals from GPs and from other pathways within the Sussex MSK (Musculoskeletal) Partnership.

Referrals should be made electronically to the Integrated MSK Clinical Referral Assessment Service using the standardised forms and process, more details are available here.