Specialist Hartlepool nurse Gill is serving up pain relief

Gill Rhind is a spinal triage and treat practitioner – one of the few nurses in the UK able to deliver a pain-reducing spinal procedure.

The epidural steroid injection involves pain-killing injections being delivered to specific nerve clusters to ease pain and discomfort and is performed under x-ray conditions to ensure accurate delivery of the medication.

The complex procedure is usually performed by consultants but Gill – who works for South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – Gill now delivering a clinic at the University Hospital of Hartlepool every Friday as part of the a partner working relationship with North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust.

Gill, 52, from Hartlepool, said: “I trained as a pain specialist nurse more than ten years ago and eventually earned a master’s degree in pain management from Edinburgh University.

“This led to working in the spinal service at The James Cook University Hospital and am now part of the shared spinal team.

“Bad backs are sadly part of the aging process. The wear and tear can’t be reversed but we can treat the pain and help people live a happier and healthier life.”

This is far from Gill’s first encounter with the University Hospital of Hartlepool.

As well as beginning her career at the hospital in 1991, her parents both worked there during the 1980s.

Her father was a consultant urologist and her mother was a business manager.