Support floods in for pain clinic battle at Dorset County Hospital (From Dorset Echo)

Support floods in for pain clinic battle at Dorset County Hospital

1:00pm Thursday 18th March 2010 in

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CAMPAIGNER Diana Smith has been flooded with support in her battle for pain clinic improvements at the Dorset County Hospital.

She has been contacted by 42 fellow patients waiting for treatment and injections at the Williams Avenue complex.

Now she hopes to present case notes to South Dorset MP Jim Knight at a meeting in Weymouth tomorrow.

Mrs Smith, aged 63, of Wardcliffe Road, Weymouth, will be taking the action after appealing for patients to contact her.

She said: “I am very pleased with the response.

“I’ve had 42 people get in touch with about 14 or 15 people writing letters. It is good to get the response but some of the people have very distressing situations.

“I will present 37 case notes to Mr Knight and hope that he can do something.

“The campaign is quite high profile now and hopefully that will help.”

Mrs Smith and her husband Colin have been waiting for 24 months between them for their latest, regular injections.

She said that they are meant to have the injections every four months for her arthritis and his degenerative back condition.

They fear that their treatment has been put on hold so the hospital can concentrate on seeing new patients within its 18 weeks target.

She appealed in the Dorset Echo for people in a similar situation to contact her.

Mr Knight said: “I have concerns and a number of constituents have contacted me.

“I would welcome a meeting with Diana. I have had initial discussions with the chief executive of Dorset NHS Primary Care Trust and the acting chief executive of Dorset County Hospital.”

He added: “I know that they are looking quite urgently at sorting this out and hopefully they will get a resolution on this fairly quickly.”

Dorset County Hospital has said that it is happy to talk to patients about concerns and that it was working with the NHS Dorset primary care trust.

A spokesman said: “Demand for the pain service has grown and we are working with our colleagues in NHS Dorset to provide more accessible, timely care for people suffering with chronic pain.

“Currently, we are taking steps to increase specialist support for this service so we can see patients as quickly as possible.”

l Mrs Smith also hoped to lobby the chief executive of NHS Dorset Paul Sly at a meeting at the sailing academy on Portland today.

The Health Network event starts at 10.15am and members of the public will be able to ask health chiefs questions on health provision in the area.