Dr Neil Collighan is a full-time Consultant in Pain Medicine and Lead Consultant for Pain Services at East Kent Hospitals University Foundation NHS Trust, where he has held consultant status since 2009. He is President-Elect of the British Pain Society. He provides independent, court-compliant expert witness evidence through Pain Expert across personal injury and clinical negligence claims.
Dr Neil Collighan is a consultant pain medicine specialist and expert witness providing independent, court-compliant pain evidence through Pain Expert.
Dr Neil Collighan has been Consultant in Pain Medicine at East Kent Hospitals University Foundation NHS Trust since 2009, with his practice dedicated exclusively to pain management since 2014. Since 2018 he has served as Lead Consultant for Pain Services within the Trust — clinical leadership responsibility that spans both the breadth and operational direction of pain provision across East Kent.
In 2026, Dr Collighan was among the first tranche of specialist clinicians to be credentialled in Pain Medicine by the General Medical Council — a formal recognition of advanced expertise that distinguishes him within the specialty. He has been elected President-Elect of the British Pain Society and will assume the presidency in May 2027. His engagement with the Society’s leadership has been sustained: elected Honorary Secretary in 2023, Honorary Treasurer in 2024, and previously Chair of the British Pain Society’s Interventional Pain Management group from 2015. He has also acted as council liaison for NICE and the Interventional Pain Management Special Interest Group.
His contribution to the development of pain medicine at a national level is substantive. He co-chaired the editorial group that produced the UK guidelines on medial branch blocks and radiofrequency denervation of lumbar facet joints, published jointly by the British Pain Society and the Royal College of Anaesthetists’ Faculty of Pain Medicine, and chaired a British Pain Society working group developing the UK statement on the use of steroids in axial procedures. He has served as South East Coast, South, and National Representative on the NHS England Clinical Reference Group for Specialised Pain Services since 2013, and currently sits on the NHS England High Cost Device Working Group.
Clinically, Dr Collighan has extensive experience across a wide range of painful conditions: complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), chronic pain syndromes, neuropathic pain, lumbar spinal pain and sciatica, thoracic and cervical spinal pain, whiplash, shoulder, hip and knee pain, chronic pelvic pain, and chronic pain following surgery and trauma. He has particular expertise in neuromodulation, and has jointly established a neuromodulation service at East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust providing spinal cord stimulation and intrathecal pump placement. He has developed a private multidisciplinary spinal cord stimulation service for the County of Kent, delivered across his private consulting rooms at BMI Chaucer Hospital in Canterbury, Spencer Private Hospital in Margate, and One Ashford Hospital in Ashford.
Dr Neil Collighan has been preparing medico-legal reports since 2009 and joined Pain Expert in October 2014. He has presented to the British Pain Society and to international audiences including the World Congress of Pain, and contributes to FRCA examination teaching at both primary and finals level.
Our chambers team will review your instruction, and connect you with the consultant pain expert. We’ll arrange a short call to agree scope, timelines, and fees from the outset – so the evidence is first-time-right and compliant with CPR Part 35.
Every enquiry is handled in confidence and in line with GDPR.
Our chambers team will review your instruction, and connect you with the consultant pain expert. We’ll arrange a short call to agree scope, timelines, and fees from the outset – so the evidence is first-time-right and compliant with CPR Part 35.
Every enquiry is handled in confidence and in line with GDPR.