Waiting lists for pain management services in the HSE South are expected to get longer this year following several service reductions.
The service, which is delivered at Waterford Regional Hospital (WRH), is to experience an activity reduction of at least three per cent following cuts in staffing, theatre sessions and the removal of the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) initiatives.
More than 860 patients are currently awaiting access to pain treatment, some of whom are waiting more than a year. Mr Richie Dooley, Area Manager for Waterford/Wexford health services, told HSE South Regional Health Forum member Councillor Patrick Crowley that the service treated over 750 patients in 2010 and 715 patients in 2011.
Between 2007 and2011 the NTPF spent almost €1 million on funding pain relief procedures in the south-east.
Funding for the procedures, such as spinal cord implants, has now stopped and patients are now forced to attend pain specialist services in hospitals outside the region.
Theatre sessions have been reduced from two to one per week following cuts in the 2012 budget and a full-time clinical nurse specialist dedicated to the service at WRH has retired.
In response to the retirement, a half-time nurse post will now be redeployed within the Hospital “to sustain the pain service”, Mr Dooley stated.
