Moray chronic pain patients believe they have been"forgotten about" by NHS Grampian as situation labelled "totally unacceptable"
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CHRONIC pain patients in Moray say they have been "forgotten about" by NHS Grampian with Moray MP Douglas Ross labelling the situation "totally unacceptable".
Mr Ross raised concerns with the health board on behalf of patients earlier this month including those of Lhanbryde resident Helen McDonald who has been housebound for three years.
In their response, NHS Grampian said that the current waiting time for a pain clinic outpatient appointment is 18 weeks.
It was also pointed out that patients waiting for appointments at Dr Gray's Hospital have the option to travel to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary but that the wait for an appointment there has hit 64 weeks.
Mr Ross has now demanded urgent action to help chronic pain sufferers in Moray.
He said: "This is a deeply disappointing response from NHS Grampian. I have had many constituents contact me who are suffering in agony, desperate to know when they will have an appointment, but this won’t reassure them at all.
"At my surgeries in recent weeks this issue has been raised several times, and it’s concerning that so many people continue to suffer as they wait to be seen at the pain clinic.
“Many patients at Dr Gray’s feel they have been completely forgotten about. The claim about waiting 18 weeks for appointments simply won’t ring true for many people in Moray. The situation for them is totally unacceptable.
"Performance in NHS Grampian in relation to chronic pain is among the worst in Scotland and urgent action needs to be taken. For anyone to be waiting well over a year for an appointment – as is the case in Aberdeen – is utterly shocking."
Responding to Mr Ross' comments, NHS Grampian said they reject the notion that chronic pain patients have been forgotten about.
They added that every effort is being made to make sure patients are seen as soon as possible.
An NHS Grampian spokesperson said: "We appreciate people waiting for appointments with the pain management team are doing so in considerable pain and discomfort.
"We aim to see them as quickly as we can, but we face considerable, long term, challenges in this service. Pain management is a specialist field and there are more vacancies nationally than there are qualified people to fill them.
"We do not accept the suggestion we have 'forgotten' about patients in Moray and would seek to reassure them they will be seen as promptly as possible."
