HWL Escalation Paper - Pain Management Service
Why is Healthwatch Lincolnshire (HWL) bringing this to your attention?
In June 2017 HWL undertook a visit to the pain services in Lincolnshire to collate patient experiences. The patient feedback from the clinics told us:
- Only 1 in 4 people thought they had spoken to the person who could help with their pain.
- Only 1 in 4 people felt involved in the development of their pain management care plan.
- Only 8% felt the interventions/treatments/help given was appropriate and helped them manage the pain.
We were then informed in 2017 that commissioners intended to change the patient and service pathway for Pain Management to make it more community based with care closer to home and greater focus on the psychological impact of pain.
In April 2018 we were contacted by commissioners to review the patient, clinician and stakeholder communication for the planned changes around service. At that point HWL were told there would be no changes to services until early 2019 and that patients would be communicated with during that process.
However during May 2018 we have continued to hear patient feedback that does not reflect the feedback given by the Commissioners. An example of patient experiences are given below:
May 2018
Could you tell me what has happened to Grantham's Pain Clinics? I have six-monthly spinal injections with review O.P appointments in between. I had injections in January but have not had my April review appointment and after making enquiries just managed to get one for July. This will be 1 month before my next injections are due. It is just not fair to have patients in considerable pain waiting without explanation as it affects their whole life and those of their family too. I don't know how I will cope if I have to wait a further 6 months for treatment.
