More than 200 chronic pain patients waited more than a year for appointments

The Scottish Tories have criticised the “enormous” rise in the number of patients in chronic pain waiting more than one year for an appointment in the quarter ending in September.

Public Health Scotland data showed 2,005 patients were seen at a consultant-led clinic for chronic pain in the three months up to September 30 – up from 1,954, a 2.6% increase – from April to June.

More than half (57.9%) of patients were seen within 12 months or less, while 11.1% waited between 13 and 24 weeks and 19.3% between 25 and 51.

However, with 237 patients (11.8%) waiting more than 52 weeks for an appointment – compared to the four in the same timeframe of 2022 – the Scottish Conservatives said the rise is “alarming and unacceptable”.

Figures also showed the number of patients seen within 12 weeks has declined from 64.7% in the quarter ending September 2022, to 57.8% in the same period in 2023.

Meanwhile, the figures showed that referrals to a chronic pain clinic had returned to levels seen prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, with 5,220 patients referred during the quarter ending September 30.

Scottish Conservatives health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: “This enormous rise in patients waiting over a year for a chronic pain appointment is both alarming and unacceptable.

“By definition, these patients are in agony, so delays of this length take an enormous toll on their physical and mental wellbeing.

“The blame for these intolerable waits like squarely with the SNP. Their dire, workforce planning over several years have left Scotland’s NHS unable to cope with the huge demands placed upon it.

“The discredited and distracted Health Secretary, Michael Matheson, needs to focus on his day job and find solutions to this problem.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We’re working with all health boards to understand the challenges and improvement opportunities to address longer waiting times as boards deal with extremely challenging circumstances.

“We are determined to improve care and support for people with chronic pain and we have recently published an update to our implementation plan which sets out the actions we will take to address the priorities people with chronic pain have told us matter most to them.

“This includes work to support specialist management services to reduce waiting times for treatment by implementing improvements in how care in planned and delivered, and considering workforce solutions.”