Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-09292 on 11 September 2012. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Our Lead Clinician, on Chronic Pain and the National Chronic Pain Steering Group have been working with NHS National Services Division (NSD) to review the current provision of specialist residential pain management services. Options for the future provision of these services, including the potential for a service based in Scotland, will be considered at a meeting scheduled with NSD in early December.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-05614 on 9 March 2012. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The Lead Clinician and the National Chronic Pain Steering Group are currently exploring a range of options for the provision of specialist chronic pain services. These will be discussed at a meeting scheduled with National Services Division of NHS National Services Scotland in early December 2012.

A chronic pain Managed Clinical Network has been running effectively in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde for some time.

In addition the Scottish Government has recently provided pump priming funding for the establishment of service improvement groups/Managed Clinical Networks to NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Dumfries and Galloway, NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Lothian.

The National Steering Group are working closely with a number of boards to develop similar approaches.

Estimates of the numbers of adults and children usually resident in each Scottish health board area at 30 June 2011 are given in the following table.

Estimated Population of Scotland, mid-2011

Estimates of the population by sex and single year of age are published annually by National Records of Scotland and are available for NHS boards and other geographies on their website at:

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/theme/population/estimates/index.html.

The recently published Benchmarking report on the provision of chronic pain services shows that 75% of the adult population now have access to pain management programmes. There are a small number of boards which do not currently have PMP’s in place.

The National Chronic Pain Steering Group is working with Boards to assist in the planning and development of services and encouraging Boards to work with stakeholders to provide services that meet the needs of their resident populations. This includes consideration of services provided by voluntary organisations, such as the self management courses run by the Pain Association Scotland.

Information on how many nurses there are in multidisciplinary chronic pain teams in each NHS board area for (a) adult and (b) children services, is not held centrally. However, information on the number of Clinical Nurse Specialists with a specialty of pain can be found at the following link:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2011-11-29/Clinical_Nurse_Specialist_S2011.xls?62532551

It should be noted that the table contains data at the NHS board level and not at the (a) adult and (b) children services level.

I would also like to refer the member to the Benchmarking Report published by Healthcare Improvement Scotland on 26 October 2012. http://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.org/programmes/long_term_conditions/chronic_pain/chronic_pain_update_report.aspx

The audit has identified the current resources available in relation to NHS Board populations and provides up to date information on the provision of pain management services in each NHS Board area. This information will assist NHS Boards to identify any gaps and variation in local services and provides recommendations to inform planning and assist in the implementation of the Scottish Service Model for Chronic Pain.

The National Chronic Pain Steering Group continues to make steady progress in taking forward an extensive work plan and is working with NHS boards to provide support in implementing the service model.

As part of the group’s work plan Healthcare Improvement Scotland recently published a benchmarking report on chronic pain services in Scotland. The purpose of the report was to provide an update on the provision of chronic pain services since the publication of the GRIPs report and provide recommendations to assist NHS Board in the planning of services. Findings from the audit show that there has been improvement in service provision since the GRIPS report of 2007.

The report is available on the Healthcare Improvement website at:

http://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.org/programmes/long_term_conditions/chronic_pain/chronic_pain_update_report.aspx.

The establishment of service improvement groups/Managed Clinical Networks are seen as a key way of implementing the Scottish Service Model for Chronic Pain. The National Chronic Pain Steering Group has been working with boards to support them to develop improvement plans. This has resulted in a number of successful bids to establish service improvement groups/managed clinical networks, most of which are in the early stages of development.

Information on how many pain consultants there are in multidisciplinary chronic pain teams in each NHS board area for (a) adult and (b) children services, is not held centrally. However I would like to refer the member to the Benchmarking Report published by Healthcare Improvement Scotland on 26 October 2012:

http://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.org/programmes/long_term_conditions/chronic_pain/chronic_pain_update_report.aspx.

The audit has identified the current resources available in relation to NHS Board populations and provides up to date information on the provision of pain management services in each NHS Board area. This information will assist NHS Boards to identify any gaps and variation in local services and provides recommendations to inform planning and assist in the implementation of the Scottish Service Model for Chronic Pain.