Chronic pain waiting times
Quarter ending 31 March 2022

About this release

This release reports on the length of time patients waited for a first appointment with a pain management service. These services provide chronic pain assessment and management and are delivered by multi-disciplinary teams.

Main points

• During the quarter ending 31 March 2022, 4,825 patients were referred to a chronic pain clinic. This is similar to the previous quarter, when 4,865 patients were referred. Referrals have increased by 23.8% compared to a year earlier, when 3,897 patients were referred during the quarter ending 31 March 2021.
• There were 2,122 patients seen at a consultant-led chronic pain clinic during the quarter ending 31 March 2022, compared to 2,012 in the previous quarter, an increase of 5.5%. Of these, 1,463 (68.9%) waited 12 weeks or less, 314 (14.8%) waited between 13 and 24 weeks, 332 patients (15.6%) waited between 25 and 51 weeks and 13 patients (0.6%) waited 52 weeks or more.

A bar chart showing the distribution of wait for patients seen at a Chronic Pain clinic during the quarters ending 31 December 2021 and 31 March 2022. Bars for the quarter ending 31 December 2021 are pale blue and bars for the quarter ending 31 March 2022 are darker blue. Data for NHS Orkney has been excluded from this chart pending a resubmission.

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Distribution of wait for patients seen at a Chronic Pain clinic during the quarters ending 31 December 2021 and 31 March 2022

• The number of patients seen initially at a consultant-led clinic is now lower than prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, when an average of just under 3,000 patients were seen per quarter during 2019. This is largely due to some NHS Boards introducing new pathways that offer patients alternatives to being seen at a consultant-led outpatient clinic. Patients are removed from waiting lists if they take up this offer.
• At 31 March 2022, 3,186 patients were waiting for their first appointment at a chronic pain clinic. This compares to 2,957 patients at 31 December 2021, an increase of 7.7%. Over the previous year, the number of patients waiting to be seen for their first appointment has increased by 36.4% from 2,335 patients at 31 March 2021.
• The number of patients waiting remains lower than in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, when on average just under 5,000 patients were waiting at the end of each quarter. The waiting list was reduced significantly between October 2020 and March 2021 when referrals were still at a lower level than prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and additions to the waiting list were exceeded by the number of patients ending their wait, either by being seen by a consultant, another clinician or being removed for other reasons.

Background

Chronic pain is pain that carries on for longer than 12 weeks despite medication or treatment. Further information can be found on the NHS Inform website.

The data presented here have been adjusted for periods of patient unavailability. Any adjustments are based on the NHSScotland Waiting Times Guidance.

The data presented in this release continue to be impacted by measures put in place to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. After being temporarily paused in March 2020, chronic pain services started to resume in June as part of the planned remobilisation of services. In September, a Framework for Recovery of NHS Pain Management Services was published with further guidance on the resumption and continuation of services.

For the NHS Boards who submit data on pain psychology clinics, further detail is available in the data tables and the publication report.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 13 September 2022.