Jane Elliott BBC News Online health staff

Sue Clayton lives in constant pain

It claims services are patchy, and amount to a postcode lottery.

Some patients with severe and persistent pain may have to wait more than two years before they can seen by an appropriate specialist and that when they get there only half of the pain clinics are able to offer them the pain management programmes needed for optimum patient treatment.

It adds that although psychologists are an integral part of the chronic pain management team that only half of clinics have one available.

Demand

Some hospital pain management clinics have had to close their referral lists from the GPs because of the demand for services.

The survey, by the independent health care company Dr Foster, also showed there can be a tenfold difference in service funding from one region to the other.

I feel like I am walking on glass Sue Clayton

The spend per patient is �176 in London, but only �37 in the Eastern region and �39 in the South West region.

Dr Beverley Collett, President of the Pain Society and Consultant in Pain Management and Anaesthesia at the University Hospitals of Leicestershire said: "Chronic pain is one of the greatest causes of suffering in the UK yet it is under-treated and under-resourced.

"This report highlights the highly variable provision of specialist services and shows how essential it is that the government sets standards for pain management.

"It is vital that pain services are given support to improve patient access, lower waiting times and provide the best standards of treatment."

But she stressed the regional figures given for amount spent per person could be misleading as figures were calculated differently.

Chronic

Patient Sue Clayton, 56, agrees. She has suffered from chronic back pain for the last 23 years following surgery.

Her pain is so chronic that sometimes she is incapable of moving.

"I get pain from my waist to my toes. It is like a burning pain and I feel like I am walking on glass. The only thing that really works for me is lying flat on my back."

Sue has tried all sorts of pain relief from medication to complementary therapies, but little has worked and her life has been very severely limited.

"It has been very difficult to cope. I was in my early 30's when this first started with sciatica. I had to give up work and had difficulty looking after my children.

"I had to put one child in boarding school and I had to import a lot of help to help me look after my two children."

She said that although she had received treatment at pain clinics many of her fellow sufferers were not so lucky.

"Pain clinics are very under resourced and are very patchy," she said.

Concern

The level of concern among healthcare professionals and patients about the undermanagement of pain in the UK has risen so high that the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and The Pain Society are set to lobby parliament and demand action.

Dr Graham Archard, chairman of the RCGP pain management group said: "This is one of the most common and costly problems for the NHS.

"It is time to develop practical evidence-based measures that improve the prompt and effective management of pain, this reducing what may be the greatest economic health burden to society and the NHS."