NHS board criticised over 'scandalous' pain figures

Chronic pain affects almost 800,000 people in Scotland.

A health board has been condemned after just 6% of patients suffering from chronic pain saw a specialist within the 18-week target waiting time.

Between October and December last year 235 patients had their first appointment at the pain clinic at NHS Ayrshire and Arran.

But only 14 had been waiting 18 weeks or less with 221 people waiting longer.

The health board apologised for the waiting times and said it had taken action to improve the situation.

But Scottish Conservative health spokesman Miles Briggs described the figures as "verging on scandalous".

Across Scotland specialist pain services saw 2,616 new patients in the last three months of 2017.

Less than three quarters (72.3%) waited 18 weeks or less for their appointment.

'Utterly miserable'

Six health boards - NHS Borders, NHS Fife, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Lothian, NHS Orkney and NHS Shetland - managed to see 100% of patients within this time.

NHS Forth Valley saw nine out of 10 patients (90.7%) in 18 weeks or less.

Mr Briggs said: "Life can be utterly miserable for someone living with chronic pain.

"To make them wait more than 18 weeks for an appointment is verging on scandalous, and it's hard to see what the excuse for this could be.

"The national average of 72.3% is bad enough, but for one health board to be seeing just 6% of people in this time is shocking."

'Sincere apology'

A health board spokeswoman said: "NHS Ayrshire & Arran sincerely apologises to any patient who has had to wait longer than is acceptable for an appointment with the Pain Management Service.

"We have undertaken a number of measures to alleviate waiting times for our patients."

The board said it has arranged for an associate specialist to receive training in the pain management speciality and they have already started their clinical work.

A consultant anaesthetist is also completing the training and is expected to begin clinical work in August.

The spokeswoman added: "We have introduced a patient-focussed booking system and reviewed clinic templates, which has reduced waiting times.

"In this week in March 2017 there were 512 patients waiting more than 12 weeks for their first outpatient appointment.

"Currently we have 185 patients waiting more than 12 weeks, while we accept this is not ideal, we anticipate this will continue to improve."