The fellowship mostly took place in London at the Pain Management Center (PMC) of the National Hospital of Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN) of the University College of London Hospitals (UCLH) which is part of the National Health System (NHS). The fellowship lasted 6 weeks.
The PMC is a multidisciplinary center constituted by physicians of pain, physiotherapists, psychologists, nurses and personnel of administration.It is a center where more than 90 people work. Their main specialties are pelvic pain, headache and migraine, facial and complex pain. Because it is necessary to be registered in the GMC, this fellowship was an observership type.
The person of reference was Dr. Roman Cregg, pain physician from the PMC specialized in chronic pelvic pain treatment. I was advised and I had very clear indications about the different daily rotations during the whole fellowship.
Since the staff of pain doctors is very wide, I was able to rotate with different doctors who had different specialties. In general, I was able to attend clinics for pelvic pain, headache and migraine, facial, osteoarticular and complex pain. I was also able to attend to different interventional procedures every day (ultrasound) guided, X-rays and CT scan guided blocks), as well as a weekly operating room for neuromodulation techniques.
MDTs were performed weekly where complex cases were presented and approached from the points of view of different specialties to offer the patient the best treatment. At the same time I had the opportunity to attend different public hospitals (St George’s Hospital, Gys St Thomas) or private hospitals (Highgate Hospital, Schoen Clinic, Whittintong Hospital, London Clinics) when there was no activity in the PMC.
Dr. Jesus de Santiago
2019 EFIC Pain Fellow
