Dr Helen Makins

‘The rising impact of chronic pain: A shift in understanding and opportunities for prevention’

Dr Helen Makins FRCA, FFPMRCA

Consultant Pain Medicine Anaesthetist, Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and National Clinical Lead for the Getting it Right First Time Chronic Pain programme

Helen is a consultant pain medicine anaesthetist at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.  She is the national clinical lead for the Getting it Right First Time Chronic Pain programme, improving pathways across community, primary and hospital services for people of all ages with chronic pain. She is passionate about the importance of pain education for clinicians, the untapped potential of communication to support patients and the benefits of holistic management across pathways.

Chronic pain is the most common presenting symptom across all areas of medicine, and with the number of people living with chronic pain expected to increase by 40% by 2040, its impact far exceeds that of any other long-term condition. Despite advances in prescribing and surgical interventions, we continue to see a clear mismatch between these approaches and actual improvement in symptoms.

In Helen’s presentation, she will provide an up-to-date overview of the neuroscience of chronic pain, including its overlap with other symptom-based disorders, such as chronic fatigue and long COVID. She will explore opportunities for prevention, early intervention, and recovery, all grounded in this evolving understanding. Specialist services for chronic pain are hugely oversubscribed across the country, highlighting the need for the NHS to adopt new strategies. The Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) chronic pain programme has been developed to tackle these challenges, and Helen will share progress so far.

Helen is excited to highlight the advances in chronic pain management—an area that remains challenging for many clinicians but is increasingly relevant to our practice. She will also discuss what we now know about preventing pain from persisting, the NHS’s current response, and the crucial role lived experience plays in supporting patients.

For the link to access meeting via Teams, please click here

You can see the recording of the talk on our YouTube channel once available by clicking here

For any more information please contact admin@medchi.org.uk