In its latest report, the National Academy of Medicine draws attention to the threats “weigh on the care of chronic pain patientsdue to the retirement of many doctors who had created the “chronic pain specialist structures” and the great difficulties in recruiting their successors”.
For three years, a working group made up of pain professionals interviewed numerous specialists. Following these hearings, the Academy insists in his report on the need to consolidate the existence of the 273 structures specialized in chronic pain and to ensure the renewal of the teams working there by calling in particular on doctors who have received specialized training in “pain medicine” and on other caregivers (nurses, physiotherapists, psychologists, etc.) who have received training “pain”.
“The number of consultation requests is growing continuously while some SDCs appear threatened because of the forthcoming retirement of the doctors who founded them and the risk that they will not be replaced” insists the Academy of Medicine.
5000 consultations per center and per year
Structures specializing in pain receive an average of 5,000 patients per year. The latter are referred to the SDCs by their general practitioner or a specialist when they suffer from persistent chronic pain (which responds poorly to treatment) and disabling.
The average waiting time to obtain an appointment is around 3 months (sometimes longer for highly specialized centres). The distribution of patients according to their type of pain is as follows:
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Low back pain and sciatica: 26%
Neuropathic pain: 19%
Cancer pain: 17%
Headaches, migraines: 12%
Fibromyalgia and other idiopathic pain symptoms: 10%
Complex regional pain syndromes: 8%
Other pain: 8%
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