Call for chronic pain patients to receive treatment in Scotland
Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon is considering setting up a specialist pain management centre in Scotland to avoid patients having to travel to the main UK facility in England.
But the Scottish Government still has doubts about the case for such a centre, given the low numbers involved, and is also looking at whether better early treatment could avoid the need for residential care.
Two years ago, 23 Scots were sent to the pain management centre at the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases in Bath. Last year 18 people were referred, but in the first six months of the current financial year the number reached 21, including eight from Grampian.
Labour’s Jackie Baillie who received the figures in answer to parliamentary questions, said the cost of sending Scots patients to Bath was already more than £200,000 this year.
She said: “I am deeply concerned that patients with chronic pain are being sent for treatment as far away as Bath because the NHS is unable to treat them in Scotland.
“Forcing patients who are already suffering from painful conditions to endure long journeys away from friends and family to receive treatment should be avoided if at all possible. These figures show that it is also very expensive.
“As a matter of urgency, the Health Secretary, Nicola Sturgeon, must look at what can be done to provide patients with appropriate care closer to home.”
Ms Sturgeon said: “The Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, in Bath, is a highly specialised residential pain management facility. Scottish patients are referred there if their clinician believes it would be beneficial for their condition.
“However, we have been looking at the issue of sending people to England for treatment. We are exploring a range of issues, including whether appropriate management earlier in the treatment journey might remove the need for such referrals and whether there is a role for a residential pain management facility as part of the overall service provision in Scotland.”
Chronic pain can come from injury, disability or conditions such as arthritis, cancers, back disorders, osteoporosis, fibromyalgia, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME).
Organ transplants and the ECMO blood-oxygen treatment for critically ill patients are examples of specialist provisions which are already conducted on a cross-Border basis.
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