A CHRONIC PAIN management clinic at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda has been closed with over 200 patients on the waiting list told to go back to their GPs.

In a statement today, the HSE said that the service was developed in the hospital by a consultant anaesthetist who “had the appropriate skills to provide this service” and ran from February to December 2012.

During this time 161 patients were seen by the consultant who specialised in pain management.

However this consultant left employment at the hospital in December. The HSE said:

…we have been unsuccessful in recruiting a clinician with the same expertise and therefore no longer able to provide this service.

There were a total of 203 people on his waiting list and the HSE said these referrals have now been “returned to the referral source”.

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