Back patients’ two-year wait for pain treatment

Patients with chronic pain have to wait up to two years before being treated at a specialised unit at University Hospital in Galway.

Staffing levels at the pain management clinic mean it can only really deal with emergency cases, like those of patients suffering from cancer.  Those who have been involved in road traffic accidents and are suffering intense pain as a result have to ‘suffer in silence’ until they are called upon.

Calls have been made on the Minister for Health to lift the employment embargo so that those who are in need of treatment can be accommodated.

Cllr. Sean Canney said that he was making representations on behalf of a person who was suffering chronic pain as a result of a road traffic accident.

He said that the individual concerned had tried to gain admission to the pain management clinic at UHG but was told that there was a two year waiting list.

“This unit deals with pain either through medication or physiotherapy or other means. But to leave a person in agony for two years is just cruelty.

“From my inquiries, I am told that they are only dealing with emergency cases – like those who are suffering chronic pain through cancer or other terminally diseases.

“But for those who have been involved in accidents on the road or on farms, they have to just put up with the pain because they will not be given an appointment,” Cllr. Canney added.

The independent councillor said that even when he made contact with the clinic, he was asked by those in charge to highlight the fact that they do not have enough staff.

He said that there were people out there in agony who had no chance of being admitted or treated within the next couple of years. “Two years in pain is an awful wait,” Cllr. Canney added.

In the meantime, GPs are being asked to provide prescriptions that will alleviate pain for patients who cannot avail of the clinic in Galway.

Cllr. Canney said ‘patients will have to continue to suffer in silence’.