A NEW campaign to help relieve chronic pain has been launched.

Lucas Hawkes-Frost, clinical operations manager for the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust, visited the Houses of Parliament last week for the launch and met with health minister Earl Howe.

The campaign is based around a report which recommends changes to current practice.

These include introducing national guidelines on the identification and treatment of chronic pain and an awareness prevention campaign.

Dr Beverly Collett, chair of the chronic pain policy coalition, said: “This report is founded upon the belief that every person should have the fundamental right to access effective pain management services.

“Sadly however, it is all too apparent that existing systems of care do not provide the support that people living with long term pain need on a daily basis.

“There is broad consensus across the healthcare community that we need new, national guidelines in place to ensure improved levels of care.”

The ambulance service set pain management as a priority last year.

Chronic pain – persistent pain lasting longer than three months - affects nearly eight million people in the UK.

The NHS spends more than £500 million per year on pain medication alone, while the UK’s annual incapacity benefit bill for those living with chronic pain stands at £3.8 billion.