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Lawson at centre of pain treatment


By Staff Reporter

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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 for patient care” according to a senior manager.

Sufferers from Ballachulish to Skye will benefit from the doubling of capacity of the treatment suite based at Lawson Memorial Hospital, Golspie.

Jill Falconer, from Thurso, a patient at the clinic since it opened eight years ago, helped perform the opening ceremony at state of the art new suite and 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 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 new infusion suite will also be available for other specialities when not in use."

The original idea for the development 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 joint funding from NHS Highland.

David Sutherland revealed that he learned of the clinic, and its pressing need for refurbishment and expansion, because younger brother Charles Sutherland was one of the patients.

He added "NHS Highland has a finite resource to fund something like this, so our family trust stepped in to make it happen.”

Mr Sutherland is an investor in two Sutherland hotels, the Royal Marine in Brora and the Royal Golf in Dornoch, which support a combined 60 jobs.

The new facility will allow the capacity of 120 specialised treatments a year to increase to up to 240.

Nurse specialist Tony Lester commented: "It’s a wonderful step forward for people with highly specialised pain conditions and we’ll now be able to treat them every six or seven weeks instead of 10-12 weeks as at present.”


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