Being seen by the acute pain service
We treat children who are staying at Evelina London that need more help with their pain than simple pain relief medicines by mouth or feeding tube. We see all children who need strong pain relief medicines from an infusion drip or epidural.
When will my child be seen by the acute pain team?
If your child has surgery and needs strong pain relief medicines from a drip or epidural, we'll automatically review them on a regular basis (at least twice a day) until these infusions are no longer needed.
In all other circumstances, we'll visit your child on the ward they are staying on as soon as possible when a referral has been made by your nurse or doctor.
Who will see my child and what will they do?
Your child will be seen by a clinical nurse specialist (CNS) or consultant anaesthetist if the referral was made between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday. Outside of these hours, an anaesthetist or paediatric nurse practitioner (a senior hospital nurse) will visit your child.
During the review, we'll talk to both you and your child about the pain they're experiencing and we'll assess their pain level. We'll look at your child's blood pressure, pulse, breathing and temperature as well as their medicine prescriptions. We'll also talk to the teams looking after your child on the ward.
Once we've assessed your child, we'll create a plan for treating their pain which may include changing or adding stronger pain relief medicines. These strong pain relief medicines can be given by mouth or feeding tube, or by an infusion drip.
If we need to continue to monitor your child's pain and treatment plan, we'll visit your child every weekday morning. We may also revisit your child in the afternoon to see if any changes to their medicines have worked, or sooner if the team caring for your child ask us to.
If your child continues to experience severe pain, please let a member of staff know so that we can help your child as quickly as possible.