Campaign and petition email responses

Support for Versus Arthritis

As you may be aware, health is a devolved matter to the Scottish Parliament.

The SNP commend the work done by Versus Arthritis in supporting and advocating for those with Arthritis and welcome the continued input of Scotland Versus Arthritis and other third-sector partners in their shared goal of improving care and services for people with chronic pain.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people living in Scotland with long term conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis are able to access the best possible care and support.

The Scottish Government are grateful to Scotland Versus Arthritis for their support in developing the draft Framework for Pain Management Service Delivery as members of the National Advisory Committee for Chronic Pain.

• The Implementation Plan sets out, for the first time, an ambitious national direction for improvement including 18 Actions which reflect the priorities of people with chronic pain to improve the care and services they need.
• This includes taking a whole-system approach to address long-standing, complex issues including improving the quality of national resources such as NHS Inform, reviewing referrals and pathways of care, investing in comprehensive national data on chronic pain and its impact, and developing a national knowledge and skills framework to drive recognition, earlier intervention and improve quality of care for people with chronic pain.

The Scottish Government have also redesigned their Governance structure to ensure that they can deliver these Actions at pace. This includes investing in a new Third-Sector Network in direct response to requests from charity organisations including Scotland Versus Arthritis to better support their involvement in implementing the Framework.

• The Scottish Government will continue to monitor delivery of the Implementation Plan to ensure there is rapid progress and to identify further opportunities to improve pain services.

In addition to their investment in these challenges, the Scottish Government have recognised the impact of arthritis, and are providing £400m to develop a network of National Treatment Centres which will provide additional capacity for hip and knee surgeries which are a significant contributor to chronic musculoskeletal pain.

As stated by Scotland Versus Arthritis in their recent briefing to MSPs, the majority of people with chronic pain are seen in primary care services. That is why the Scottish Government also provided increased funding of £170 million in the previous financial year to support primary care services to expand multi-disciplinary teams and provide additional pharmacists, physiotherapists and occupational therapists who can support people to better manage chronic pain and its impact.