The CCDHB Pain Service
The Wellington Regional Pain Service serves the lower half of the North Island and the upper half of the South Island. The service is based at the Wellington Regional Hospital.

The service is a multidisciplinary service and is engaged in the various aspects of pain management, including multidisciplinary assessments and treatment, medication reviews, pain management programmes, functional assessments and interventional procedures.

Our aim is to facilitate both physical and emotional wellbeing and a return to a healthy and functional role in the family and community.

Our team members include: 
 

• Doctors
• A Clinical Psychologist
• Occupational Therapists
• Physiotherapists
• Specialist Nurse
• Psychiatrist

Pain, by definition, is an unpleasant sensory or emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage. It is both a physiologic sensation and an emotional reaction to that sensation. Chronic pain can be difficult to understand.

 Some of the conditions treated in the clinic include the following:

• musculoskeletal pains -  back pain, myofascial pain syndromes
• neuropathic pain
• functional pain syndromes
• complex regional pain syndrome - both types1 and 2
• amputation pain including phantom limb pain, stump pain, and phantom limb sensation
• headaches
• orofacial pain, including trigeminal neuralgia
• post herpetic neuralgias
• abdominal pain
• pelvic pain including endometriosis related pain
• pain and pregnancy
• opiate use and or misuse in conjunction with the Regional Drug and Alcohol Addiction services
• cancer pain, in conjunction with the Palliative Care Unit, in the form of medications and interventions.

Access to this service is via a referral from your specialist, GP or health professional and through the acute pain team of the Hospital.

As this service is a regional tertiary service, it is expected that your primary referrer has undertaken the relevant investigations and made the appropriate referrals. The management plan made will include your general practitioner.

Like all hospital clinics there is a waiting time prior to the clinic appointments, but all reasonable effort is made to minimise the waiting times.

The referrals are prioritised by a triage committee and based on the triage, are allocated for either a multidisciplinary assessment or medical only assessment. These referrals are then further streamlined into ACC-related and non-ACC or DHB referrals. Pain questionnaires can be downloaded, from below. Please bring these with you to your appointment.

A clinic appointment will be sent out following triage of the referral letters. A confirmation phone call is usually made prior to the clinic date and all patients are requested to bring with them all relevant investigations including x-rays, CT scans, MRIs and blood  test results.

Please ensure that all patient details including all telephone numbers are current.

No appointment will be rescheduled if patients do not attend without contacting the Department. 

This service is free to all permanent residents of New Zealand. For visitors to the country, a service fee applies.

Patients seen under an ACC contract do not incur a charge; the cost of the service is paid by ACC.