Annie: End this agony
Singer urges NHS to reopen special pain clinics as fellow sufferers forced to seek private treatment in England
ANNIe Lennox has urged health chiefs to reopen Scotland’s pain clinics after it emerged patients are being forced to travel to england for private treatment.
While many patients suffering from chronic pain get by on medication, some depend on regular treatment at NHS specialist clinics.
These closed almost three months ago, and campaigners claim this has forced some patients to go to england for painkilling drugs, paying around £800 for private treatment.
Singer Miss Lennox, 65, who suffers from bouts of nerve pain, said: ‘As a chronic pain sufferer, I understand only too well what it feels like to go through hours or days with extreme physical discomfort.
‘In the UK, millions of people suffer... but due to the covid 19 lockdown situation, NHS chronic pain clinics have been closed for months with no word yet on when they will reopen, which is sought urgently in Scotland in particular.’
Miss Lennox, who is originally from Aberdeen, added: ‘I very much hope this situation can be responded to as soon as possible.’
Scotland’s NHS pain clinics receive more than 40,000 visits a year from returning patients.
christopher Bridgeford, chairman of patient charity Affa Sair, said: ‘I very much welcome and applaud Annie’s statement.
‘It has been an agonising situation since the decision to halt pain clinic treatments.’
NHS services will gradually resume over the coming months with pain services scheduled to recommence in during phase two of the easing of lockdown.
But Scottish conservative health spokesman Miles Briggs said: ‘over the last 13 years SNP ministers haven’t taken chronic pain patients seriously. It is clear we need to see SNP ministers restart services for chronic pain sufferers as soon as possible but we also need to see an acknowledgment that even before this public health emergency, chronic pain patients across Scotland were being failed.
‘As we come out of lockdown it presents an opportunity for us to radically reform the way services are run and accessed by chronic pain patients.’