Pain Clinic meeting in Dorchester hijacked by angry sufferers (From Dorset Echo)

Pain Clinic meeting in Dorchester hijacked by angry sufferers

4:00pm Saturday 4th February 2012 in Local News By Harry Hogger

A PAIN clinic campaigner says there are some positives to take out of a stormy meeting on the future of the service.

The talks held in Dorchester by the Dorset Primary Care Trust to discuss proposed changes to the service for pain patients in the county was hijacked by people venting their anger at the existing service.

Colin Smith, who has been campaigning for reduced waiting times between injections for three years, said he understood the anger felt by many of his fellow pain sufferers, but insisted there were some positive signs to come out of the meeting with the PCT.

Afterwards, Mr Smith, from Weymouth, said: “I think probably the PCT wanted to have patients there so they could talk about the new specifications but it was inevitable pain clinic patients would come here with unresolved grievances about their treatment.

“I don’t think the PCT appreciated that was going to happen, it’s good because they heard the anger and the real stories.”

He said that he was glad that Nichola Arathoon from the PCT had agreed at the meeting to look again at the new proposals and produce a pathway for existing patients, as it was felt the details they were shown related mainly to patients new to the service.

Mr Smith said: “The big positive is that they have at least gone off the agenda, listened to the views from the floor and they have agreed to make changes to their policy.”

The meeting was held to address the proposed Dorset community pain service, which would feature more involvement from GPs and personalised treatment for all patients.

Mrs Arathoon said that the consultation on the proposals was expected to take another few weeks and then there would be a six-month procurement phase before any new service would be introduced.

However, despite the intended focus on this new service, Mrs Arathoon spent much of the consultation session at the United Church Hall fending off criticism on the existing service from patients whose injections were months overdue.

They included Marjorie Fitzpatrick from Weymouth, who said she had been made to wait 11 months for her most recent injection and before that had to wait 17 months.

There was also strong criticism at the meeting from patient governors at Dorset County Hospital.

Andy Hutchings, below left, said the latest figures he had from the hospital in December showed that 133 patients were still waiting more than three months for their injections.

Derek Julian said: “The patients have been let down and clearly are still being let down.

“All they want is their treatment on time.”