Advanced Speciality Training Post in Pain Medicine (ST 5/6/7 level)
This 12-month post will meet the requirements of the RCoA Faculty of Pain Medicine for advanced training in pain medicine and provide support and training for the FFPMRCA exam. The post will be based mainly within the multidisciplinary Lothian Chronic Pain
Service at the Leith Community Treatment Centre, with rotation to other pain services within the South East Scotland School of Anaesthesia. Edinburgh is an internationally recognised centre for Pain Medicine.
Training will be given in all aspects of Multidisciplinary Pain Management and the training programme will be tailored to suit the successful individual’s requirements. There is the opportunity to participate in an active research programme in the Edinburgh Translational
Pain Research Group as well as teaching opportunities including the University of
Edinburgh eMSc in Pain Management.
Lothian Chronic Pain Service comprises a Pain Medicine clinic staffed by seven consultants and one senior nurse at the Leith CTC site along with a Pain Management
Programme (PMP) at the Astley Ainslie Hospital run by five psychologists, four physiotherapists and a clinical nurse specialist.
Clinics occur through the week at Leith CTC whilst injections and other procedures are performed in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Western General Hospital.
Clinics include general pain clinics a specialist Pain and Dependency clinic, combined
Palliative Care clinic, nurse-run TENS, aromatherapy and medication review clinics.
Injections are performed under fluoroscopy or ultrasound guidance as necessary as well as simple non-imaged injections and other procedures such as capsaicin patch application and intravenous infusion. The PMP provides a comprehensive assessment and treatment facility that allows patients to engage in a pain management approach using both group-based and individual work. A multidisciplinary meeting is held every week at Leith CTC with clinicians from both sites meeting to discuss clinical and administrative issues as well as providing a forum for education and professional development. Journal clubs are held on a regular basis with all disciplines contributing.
Fellows will be supported in arranging their own supervised clinics at Leith CTC and to make full use of teaching opportunities at the Astley Ainslie.
There are well-established Acute Pain Services within Lothian with regular consultant sessions and experienced clinical nurse specialists. Several of the consultants have commitments in both acute and chronic pain allowing for integration of the services.
The post will allow for visits to clinics at other hospitals in the region. This will include the
Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh plus district general hospital experience at the Borders
General Hospital, Melrose and Queen Margaret’s Hospital, Dunfermline. There will also be the opportunity to undertake a defined block of training in Glasgow which broadens exposure to implantable technology. There is an established specialist chronic pain service for paediatric patients based at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children with opportunities for training in this highly specialised area.

The training programme is based on the core curriculum of the Faculty of Pain Medicine.
There will be education in the basic science of pain through to pain assessment and multidisciplinary management. This will include training in interventional techniques as well as experience of the well-established Pain Management Programme. There are regular combined clinics with palliative medicine specialists and training in the community management of spinal lines for pain control. There will also be the opportunity for training in the management of complex co-morbidities such as chronic pain and drug dependency with regular sub-specialist clinics in this area as well as experience of the paediatric chronic pain service.
There is a range of educational and research opportunities. These include regular educational meetings within the service, joint pain teams meetings between acute pain, chronic pain and palliative care. There are local specialist meetings – the East of Scotland
Pain Group and the North British Pain Association hold high quality meetings that provide opportunities for meeting with other clinicians and researchers in the area. There is a defined fortnightly tutorial programme for advanced and higher pain trainees aimed at covering the curriculum for the FFPMRCA exam, as well as a new Scottish exam preparation course, run by the 4 Scottish Pain RAs in Pain Medicine.
Anaesthetic on-call is within the Anaesthetic Dept at the Western General Hospital for urology, colorectal and neurosurgical emergencies. There will be no daytime commitment to the anaesthetic service. This training opportunity will equip the trainee with the knowledge and skills to be able to manage pain effectively within a multidisciplinary setting and to practice independently as a fully trained pain medicine clinician.
For an informal discussion please contact Dr Ivan Marples, Consultant Pain Medicine &
Anaesthesia on 0131 537 1659 or at ivan.marples@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk
For a job pack detailing the minimum requirements for this post and associated training and development opportunities, please visit www.medicaljobs.scot.nhs.uk
or email medical.personnel@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk
. Please quote reference TG 747.
Closing Date: 06 June 2015