Highlands and Islands Labour MSP, Rhoda Grant, has said she is utterly astonished to be advised from a patient that NHS Highland is to close the clinical pain intervention service from late September this year with patients being told they will instead be referred to pain clinics in other regions.
This comes just days after the Scottish Health Technologies Group (SHTG) published its findings into a review of interventions for chronic pain advising that these specialist interventions are recommended, integrated within a multidisciplinary plan, which are intended to support access to wider care, not replace it. This includes physiotherapy, psychological support, medication review, and self‑management strategies.
Mrs Grant met with the Public Health Minister, Jenni Minto, in June last year, with representatives of NHS Highland joining remotely, during which the Minister advised the meeting that she believes both intervention and therapy are needed in the treatment of chronic pain. During a further meeting with the Minister in January of this year, Ms Minto asked Mrs Grant why NHS Highland was not reassuring patients that these interventions continue to be offered to those who benefit from them.
Rhoda Grant said “It is utterly astonishing to be told by a patient that NHS Highland has taken the decision to close the clinical pain intervention service from late September this year with patients being told they will instead be referred to pain clinics in other regions where pain services are already overstretched with not all of the Health Boards offering the specialist procedures.
“The ink is barely dry on the publicly funded SHTG report and NHS Highland tell patients they intend to send them to other health boards for treatment. This is beyond belief. I have asked for immediate meetings with NHS Highland and with the First Minister and his Health Ministers, in a bid to overturn this astonishing decision.”
Highlands and Islands MSP, Edward Mountain, said “I am hugely disappointed to see a service that I have campaigned for, with Rhoda Grant MSP and Fergus Ewing MSP, being cut.
“It is yet another example of care being removed from areas it is needed in.
“I am pleased to be able to stand with my fellow MSPs to try and prevent the centralisation of this vital service.”