Oxfordshire Headache Service
Welcome to Oxfordshire Headache Service, part of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. This leaflet explains what happens after your GP sends us a referral letter, and what the next steps will be for you.
Provisional appointment and ‘triage’
We book a provisional appointment for you in the Headache Clinic and send you details with this leaflet. In the meantime our headache specialists carefully look at the information that your GP has provided and decide how best to support you. We call this ‘triage’.
Providing prompt advice
Usually the referral letter from your GP gives us enough information to be sure what is causing your headaches. If it is also clear that you have not yet tried some of the straightforward treatments for that condition, then we will write to you and your GP with advice about these. Under these circumstances, we will not need to meet you in person, and we will cancel the provisional appointment in the Headache Clinic. You will receive a separate letter confirming that the clinic appointment has been cancelled.
We hope that you will not be disappointed if we decide that this is the best way of supporting you: it means that we are confident about the cause of your headaches. It also means that your headaches will be treated rapidly, without the delay and inconvenience of coming to clinic. If the treatment that we suggest is not satisfactory, then your GP can of course contact us again.
Headache Clinic
If you have already tried some of the straightforward treatments, then we look forward to seeing you in one of the Headache Clinics. You will not get any further letter from us, so please come along to the appointment that is enclosed with this letter. Wehave tried to make sure that your appointment is in a clinic that is reasonably close to where you live, and reasonably accessible by car or public transport, avoiding the John Radcliffe Hospital wherever possible.
You will have a consultation with one of our headache specialists, who are GPs with special expertise in headaches working together with a consultant neurologist. We will want to ask you more about your symptoms and the effects of the treatments that you have already tried. We will also examine you carefully to make sure that there is nothing physically wrong with your brain. We will help you to decide what treatment you would like to try next.
It helps us if you can keep a diary of your headaches while you are waiting for your clinic appointment. There are several apps that help you to do thisusing your mobile phone, or you can print out a diary template from the Migraine Trust website: headache diary should include:
- a note of each day you experienced a headache
- how bad that headache was
- details of the pain relief you took for it.
Please start keeping a diary as soon as possible, so we have as much information as possible when we see you.
Refractory Headache Clinic
Occasionally it is clear from your GPs letter that you have already tried all of the straightforward treatments, for example because you have been to the Headache Clinic before. If this is the case, we will cancel your appointment in the Headache Clinic and send you a new appointment for the Refractory Headache Clinic.
Contact us
If you have any questions please call the Neurosciences Appointments Team: 01865 226262
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
December 2017
Review November 2020