"Pain clinic unavailable when I need them"

I have an open appointment with the pain clinic since injuring my back (bulging discs and trapped sciatic nerve) a few years ago.  I am in acute pain right now and struggling to get comfortable to sleep or stay at work so decided to give them a call, only to find out the I can't get a telephone appointment for 8 weeks, not now when I need it.  Right now I am struggling to stay at work but try my hardest not to go off sick.    I actually work for the NHS and know how much of a drain on them it is when staff are off so push myself as much as I can but right now every day is a struggle. 

My own department have done everything they can to make things easier for me when at work, standing desk and suitable chair.  

I have previously had an injection into my spine, done in theatre, which got me back on my feet and had agreed to have a 2nd one, roughly a year later, when Covid hit and everything was cancelled.  I called a year or so into Covid to so see if things had returned to normal but was told they still weren't doing injections.  Since then I have had to carry on only taking meds. 

I am on morphine twice a day as well as a nerve inhibitor.  My initial call to them was only to find out if the injections are now going ahead and to be put on their waiting list, but will have to wait the 8 weeks to find that out and then, if they agree and they are, will then have to then go on a waiting list, not knowing how long that will be,  before it gets done.  This all adds to the time that I am in pain and struggling to cope. 

I know every service is struggling to catch up with waiting times since Covid but a service like the pain clinic it vital to people like me when the  pain gets too much and an 8 week wait until I even get to speak to someone I feel is just not great.  When I have had to be seen in the past the care I have been given has been first class but  actually getting to be seen when pain levels get to be unbearable is just impossible.  This totally affects my quality of home and working life.  It is having a detrimental affect on my quality of life and I feel like I am existing rather than living. I don't want to become another NHS Statistic and add to the list of staff off sick but don't see me being able to continue this way for much longer.   Surely there is a better way of working than this !!!!!!