Hospitals block treatment for chronic pain sufferers

The Independent, 9 June 2003, p6
Nine big hospitals in the UK have closed their waiting lists to patients suffering from chronic pain within the past year because they cannot cope with the demand. Five of the hospitals, including Addenbrooke’s in Cambridge and the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, are currently refusing new patients referred by GPs, to keep down their waiting times, according to Dr Foster, an independent research organisation. The Dr Foster survey, run with the Pain Society, shows the care provided round the country for people suffering severe pain is patchy and under-resourced. Up to 16 million people in Britain are estimated to suffer from chronic pain such as backache and more than 200 million working days were lost in 1999-2000. But funding for pain services varies hugely, ranging from one consultant seeing 250 patients a year to 50 staff treating 3,500 a year, the equivalent of one to 70. Evidence shows that pain management programmes have the biggest impact in alleviating chronic pain but only 58 per cent of clinics in the survey offer them. The survey of 214 hospitals in the UK received responses from 157.