Inverness couple help pain sufferers
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THE official opening of an expanded and upgraded chronic pain management clinic for the NHS Highland area will make a significant difference to patient care.
Sufferers will benefit from the doubling of capacity of the treatment suite at Lawson Memorial Hospital, Golspie.
Jill Falconer, from Thurso, a patient who helped perform the opening ceremony, said: "It’s revolutionised my life for the better after all sorts of drugs and therapies failed to ease my pain and it’s wonderful that more patients can now be treated.”
Jackie Milburn, clinical nurse manager for NHS Highland chronic pain management service, said: "This is a specialised treatment for patients with specific complex chronic pain conditions and it allows patients to manage their pain conditions.”
The original idea came from Inverness woman Christine Taylor, now of the surgical high dependency unit at Raigmore, who was a chronic pain management nurse specialist, and a patient she supported.
The new facilities have been made possible by funding from the charitable trust of Inverness couple David and Anne Sutherland, along with additional joint funding from NHS Highland.
Mr Sutherland learned of the clinic, and its pressing need for refurbishment and expansion, because younger brother Charles was a patient there.
He added: "NHS Highland has a finite resource to fund something like this, so our family trust stepped in.”
The new facility will allow the capacity of 120 specialised treatments a year to increase to up to 240.
Nurse specialist Tony Lester said: ”It’s a wonderful step forward and we’ll now be able to treat people with highly specialised pain conditions every six or seven weeks instead of 10-12 weeks as at present.”
