Hansard

I congratulate Mary Scanlon on securing the debate. She was right to pay tribute to Dorothy-Grace Elder, but Mary has taken up the role of being an advocate for chronic pain services and has kept the subject very much within the view of the whole Parliament and the Health and Sport Committee. I am sure that the Minister for Public Health and Sport will agree with that—she probably does not get much peace from Mary Scanlon on this subject.

Mary Scanlon’s motion mentions the centre of excellence in Bath. Those who access that centre will testify to the good work that is done there. It makes a huge difference to people’s lives if they get the right treatment, not just for chronic pain but for hugely painful conditions such as rheumatic diseases and ME.

The figure of £620,000 of costs since 2008-09 shows that only a very small number of people get to access that service. I have a fair amount of sympathy with what Mary Scanlon said about looking at the numbers and determining whether or not we need our own centre of excellence in Scotland. Given the changes that are taking place with the health service in England, it may be that the costs of using the centre of excellence in Bath will rise. This could be the time to carry out an audit to ascertain whether we can provide our own centre of excellence in Scotland.

In a way, however, that does not deal with the problem of the distances that people must travel. Even if there were a centre of excellence in the central belt, it would be difficult for people in the Highlands and Islands, which I cover, to access it. It would be a good thing to build a centre of excellence, with specialists in the community who are much closer to patients and who could give them the help that they require.

I note that referral rates are low. I have some sympathy with GPs who are not referring and who might instead be handing out painkillers. If the required services are not there and if there are long waiting times, GPs must feel frustrated in trying to deal with that. We need a good pathway, but the services need to be in place to help people. The costs of keeping people out of the workforce are huge and we need to factor them in, too.

Jamie Stone mentioned telemedicine and Dunbar hospital. The issue is close to our hearts. Jamie, Mary Scanlon, David Thompson and I fought to keep open the rheumatology unit in Dingwall and we had a successful cross-party campaign. People saw the good of that service and the difference that it made to people’s lives. Luckily, that unit has been saved.

The hospice service provides good advice and assistance to people who suffer chronic pain. It deals more with people with cancer, but there are times when hospice staff have gone out and helped people suffering from chronic pain for other reasons. That has been a huge boost for the people who have needed its services. Perhaps we should get those services to work together so that people in that situation can go to their GP and find a solution that allows them to live their lives and to be productive members of society in the long term.

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