Any advice on challenging being turned down on a referral to a Pain Clinic, please.

Yes she needs to contact the Practise manager and tell them what has happened and ask how the referral can be redone, how well does she know the doctor who referred her, when was the last time she had a face to face appointment with them? If they haven't seen recently and the request for a referral was done via a telephone consultation no wonder it has been rejected. She needs to see the GP face to face and have a proper consultation , she needs to go armed with all her ailments written down and how these are hindering her life, perhaps you could go with her? And help her out the details on paper for her. She also sounds as if she could do with some help with her day to day living, perhaps someone going in each day to help her get dressed in the morning and undressed in the evening.

Excellent advice. Its not a bad idea to actually write a referral letter yourselves or at least a list of bullit points

and include everything in it as a sort of guide/reminders to the person who eventually writes a re-referral, as this is clearly needed.

It may be that your friend’s problems are not appropriate for the Pain Clinic to deal with, as they do have specific referral criteria, and the demand is higher than capacity. They don’t generally provide this very tailored multidisciplinary intervention service for people with age related mobility problems, because those problems are not usually amenable to that approach. . If I were her I would request a further GP appointment to explore other options, perhaps with a referral to the community services outreach team, who could provide support such as a course of physiotherapy, occupational therapy support to assist with daily living tasks, or care services.

Well the need for help etc is different from the referral for the pain aspects I agree,

but it sounds as if the initial GP letter didnt cover those adequately:

and its worth re-trying if pain levels are really high, as that might be impeding activities she could do for herself for longer if the pain were under control.

Thank you all for your very prompt and informative replies.
I really do appreciate it.
Her GP is a young new doctor and only ever seen her once. He said no need to examine you as I can see how much you are struggling. I’ll refer you.
He obviously could not have read her notes.
She has had many sessions with physiotherapists, some NHS, and many private.
She’s had the Occupational Therapy person round who supplied all the various walkers etc,
She’s not assuming help for age related mobility problems, just the extreme pain and subsequent disablement.
We appreciate that getting older brings on many challenges but this is something else and she just wanted to know the best way forward and how / if she can challenge the decision.
Appreciate you reading.

The GP surgery will reframe a referral which has been declined, as long as they think she meets the referral criteria, so making an appointment to see a GP who knows your friend and her medical history well is the next step. It sounds as though the only route to the clinic is via a GP referral.

I would pursue this if I were you. Most hospitals have a PALS office to deal with complaints. I would contact them. I attended a Pain Clinic at my local hospital and it helped me no end, so it's worth keeping on.

What exactly is the health problem that is causing the pain? Sorry if I've missed it but I can't find any reference to a specific health problem in the OP

I'm just wondering what her GP put in the referral to explain the level of pain

Once again, man thanks for all your helpful replies.
I did not feel it necessary to list all my friends medical conditions as the question was for experiences of referrals being declined and hopeful advice to challenge.
Appreciate you all taking the time.
Thank youn

ferry23

What exactly is the health problem that is causing the pain? Sorry if I've missed it but I can't find any reference to a specific health problem in the OP

I'm just wondering what her GP put in the referral to explain the level of pain

I thought - though I may be wrong - that medical staff have a scale they measure pain on - ie going from 1 to 10 (with 1 meaning very minimal pain to 10 being excruciating). I wonder what new doctor said there?

Personally - I'd probably book myself in for an in person appointment with a private doctor nearby if there is one. Trying to give a list of problems to a harassed NHS doctor these days - with the way so many/maybe all? of them now ration you to mentioning one problem only. Makes you wonder how on earth you're supposed to mention everything - even the ones a blind person could see are related to each other.

You need to find the names of the practice manager, and the Senior Partners in the practice, and copy all three with

A copy of the referral as sent
A copy of the hospital response
A reminder that it was the hospital who encouraged her to seek a referral

Most importantly, this;

"Her GP is a young new doctor and only ever seen her once. He said no need to examine you as I can see how much you are struggling. I’ll refer you.
He obviously could not have read her notes."

Then request that a SeniorPartner examine the patient and
prepare a professional referral. Also, that the young GP undergoes some training.

Remember to describe how you are on your worst day.
Sometimes there are 'magic words' that are good to use, for example 'reduced quality of life'.