Help Advocate for CRPS This Election

As you may already know, the next general election is scheduled for Thursday 4th July 2024. This is your chance to cast your vote and help shape the future direction of our country, especially to advocate for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) and chronic pain. Will you help us advocate for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) in this General Election and in the future new Government?

Leading up to the upcoming election, you may have the chance to speak with the election candidates in your local area who are all wanting to win your support in this year’s General Election. By making them aware of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) and the needs of the CRPS community, you can help them really understand our cause and hopefully secure their backing in the future.

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) can be a debilitating condition for thousands of people that can affect not just the person’s health but can affect their family life, work life or simply to just live well. It's important to hear what each of the parties in your area are planning to do if they were to win. Equally, it's crucial for the politicians to listen to individuals in the community who are living with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome and their families, understand the daily challenges we encounter, and advocate for change, both at the local level and in Westminster, if they are elected. So it's essential for the upcoming UK Government, whoever that may be, to allocate sufficient funding to address NHS backlogs especially in the Pain Services.

Our Founder and Chair, Victoria Abbott-Fleming MBE says:

As the Chair of Burning Nights CRPS Support I urge the new Government to prioritise proper and sufficient funding for pain services. The current waiting lists, in some areas of up to 2 years or more to simply access pain clinics is unacceptable."

To help you in discussions with election candidates in your area, we have outlined our key government asks below and also developed a poster that you can download that has a range of questions that you can ask your election candidates in your local area.

Our main key asks are:

• Make chronic pain a priority in the healthcare plans
• Collect statistics on Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) by ensuring the ICD-11 code is assigned to the NHS system for CRPS - Data on diagnoses is critical to drive essential research into the condition
• Increase funding for pain services - chronic pain affects 35%-51% of the UK adult population (NHS Digital, 2019) but there are only 120 full time pain consultants and clinics are struggling to cope
• Make it a legal requirement for all public buildings and companies where the public have access to be fully accessible

As we've mentioned, local parliamentary candidates throughout the UK are really working hard and campaigning to earn our trust and secure our votes.

You can support our main asks that we outlined above, by speaking with your local election candidates through their local events or even on the doorstep. We have developed a poster that you can download with some key questions that you can ask your local election candidates and share your story and experiences.

To download our poster titled 'What to ask your electoral candidates' please click the link Questions for Election Candidates Poster.

Once the next Government and politicians have been chosen, please check out our Campaigning section of our website that gives you ideas on what you can ask or how to share your journey and how to contact your local MP. Click on the Campaign with Us Contact Your MP link on the Get Involved menu. 

Thank you for your ongoing support as we aim to ensure that the next government, whoever that may be, prioritises the needs of the Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) community as your voices should be heard.

How You can support Us

You can play your part too; sign up to our free e-newsletter and stay informed about our work, hear about the latest guidelines and research as well as receive updates on any news, appeals, events and campaigns relating to CRPS.

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Or why not make a donation so we can continue supporting people like Maddie? Just £5 a month could help us in our mission to raise awareness and provide support to those affected by CRPS.

Make a Donation

Or why not join our Membership? You can join our Membership for just £24 a year if you're in the UK and £36 a year if you're outside the UK. It's a great way to support the charity and its mission but also receive support and information through our members magazine and members' only events!

Join our Membership

We thank you in advance for your generosity and look forward to building a better future for our CRPS warriors!