Hansard

We have all experienced pain, suffering or discomfort at some point in our lives but, for most of us, it does not—thankfully—last long and, after taking a couple of paracetamols, we usually bounce back to normal. However, we are the lucky ones. For many, such pain can persist for months, regardless of medication or treatment.

As we know, chronic pain affects one in five people across Scotland and has significant and serious impacts on their daily life. One in 20 people have been diagnosed as suffering from severe chronic pain—a condition that, according to the World Health Organization, leaves many contemplating taking their lives. The untold misery that it inflicts on many people’s daily lives is horrendous and alarming, to say the least.

In many cases, chronic pain can persist after an injury or operation. It also affects people with a range of medical ailments, including diabetes, arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome and back conditions.

It is worrying that the number of cases is expected to rise further because of working from home, as more and more people are being signed off sick with back and neck problems. Official figures from the Office for National Statistics have revealed a surge in the number of people who are dropping out of the labour market as a direct result of using inappropriate work equipment. The ONS statistics reveal an epidemic of chronic back and neck problems, which are being linked to working from home. A spokesman said:

“it is possible that increased home working since the pandemic has given rise to these kinds of chronic conditions.”

It is known that almost one in five people are still working from home in Scotland, despite the Covid restrictions having been lifted.

The already alarming figures, which show that almost 4,000 chronic pain patients are waiting for their first appointment at a chronic pain clinic, could be about to increase further. That is a major worry, given that resources in our NHS are overstretched. Indeed, the situation has become so bad that many chronic pain sufferers are now forced to seek treatment in England, because of the long waiting times in Scotland.

Only 26 per cent of patients are seen by a chronic pain specialist within six weeks. ?In the quarter ending June 2022, 26.2 per cent of patients were waiting seven to nine weeks and more than a fifth were waiting between 10 and 12 weeks. We should all agree that, given the circumstances, that is clearly unacceptable, and measures must be introduced to significantly bring down those waiting times.

Some chronic pain sufferers are waiting three years for pain-relieving injections.? Liz Barrie, who is a former nurse, has described the current chronic pain statistics as a “sham”, as the data that has been published covers only people who are waiting for an initial chronic pain clinic appointment. She said:

“What is being hidden is the utterly outrageous amount of time thousands of patients are then forced to wait for follow-up injections.”

The “Framework for pain management service delivery—implementation plan” aims to improve care and the service in partnership with people with chronic pain, NHS staff and services including the third sector and other key stakeholders. On the face of it, that sounds like a positive step forward, if greater resources are provided to ensure that that happens. However, critics of the framework insist that there was no proper partnership with people with chronic pain, who were denied sight of facts and documents relating to the framework.

As my colleague Sandesh Gulhane said, Dorothy-Grace Elder, who is voluntary secretary of the cross-party group on chronic pain, insists that the new framework is absurdly vague waffle, and the fear is that the Scottish Government might slip through measures to reduce specialist services and pile more on GPs, who are already toiling. I hope that the minister will give the assurance that that will not be the case.

Patients are desperate for specialist chronic pain clinics to be maintained and staffed adequately. In September 2020, the First Minister’s programme for government declared that her Government wanted to reduce reliance on specialist chronic pain services and certain treatments and to increase self-management. Two years on, we are still waiting to hear which treatments might be cut. It should be remembered that many depend on, for instance, lignocaine infusions and pain relief injections that are recommended by specialist doctors, which must be protected.

Different NHS boards across Scotland address chronic pain in different ways. In 2017, NHS Dumfries and Galloway set up a chronic pain team in the anaesthetics department at Dumfries and Galloway royal infirmary, in my constituency. All patients with chronic pain are offered an initial education meeting to discuss their condition, after which they are referred for appropriate further treatment.