Senedd told of “two year” wait for pain management appointment at Wrexham Maelor Hospital

Concerns around waiting times for appointments at the pain management clinic at Wrexham Maelor have been raised in the Senedd.

Mark Isherwood, Welsh Conservative MS for North Wales, last week called for a Welsh Government Statement on the pain management service in North Wales.

Mr Isherwood raised the case of a patient who has already been waiting 12 months for treatment and has now been told that the waiting time to be seen is a further two years.

North Wales MS Mark Isherwood said: “I call for a statement on the pain management service in North Wales.

“After the Countess of Chester Hospital told me that Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board was repatriating pain management services for people in north-east Flintshire to Wrexham Maelor Hospital, with a consequent explosion in waiting times, the then health Minister, Mark Drakeford, told me that it was a matter for the health board and otherwise did nothing.

Mark Isherwood, Welsh Conservative MS for North Wales

“Only yesterday a constituent living in Hawarden suffering with chronic pain e-mailed the team dealing with bookings for the pain management clinic at Wrexham Maelor and they informed him that he would have to wait another two years before he would get an appointment, meaning he will have to wait three years in total.

“He asks what steps are you taking to hold them to account and bring about significant improvement, or do you consider a three-year wait for treatment acceptable?

“I therefore put that question to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and call for a statement from that Cabinet Secretary on this matter also.”

Jane Hutt MS, who is the new Trefnydd, replied that the matter would be raised with the Health Minister: “In terms of the service in north-east Wales in particular provided by Betsi Cadwaladr, in terms of access to it and what will be really important to people, particularly people with chronic conditions in terms of pain management, again, I will raise this with the Cabinet Secretary and, indeed, the Cabinet Secretaries for health and also for north Wales in terms of looking at that situation.”