Pain Management Task Force minutes: July 2023

Contact

Welcome and apologies

Chair is unavailable so deputy will chair this meeting. Apologies were noted.

Approval of minutes and matters arising 

Previous minutes were approved. Matters arising will be covered in agenda items. 

Implementation Progress 

Action 2 - NHS Inform currently has a “Content Freeze” in place which means the new pages will not be live until after the end of July (date to be confirmed by NHS24). Task Force were asked to note that the content now contains video links to break up the text. 

Action 3, 4 and 14 – It is proposed that levels 1 and 2 will begin testing from the end of September and the launch of the toolkit mid-November. 

The Clinical Lead will look at the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) badge system https://www. badges. sssc. uk. com/ which is used by social care staff. 

• Action – review SSSC badge system

Action 10 – Remote Health Care Pathway (RHCP) test has been completed in NHS Highland and was well received. Due to be rolled out to other services. Task Force were asked to note a risk has been added to the risk register as the RHCP project managers have moved into other policy areas, and it is unclear if they will be replaced. National Clinical Lead has arranged a meeting with the RHCP lead to discuss. 

• Action – feedback on agreed actions from meeting with RHCP Lead

Action 11 – Confirmation has been received that SIGN guideline 136 - Management of Chronic Pain is being updated and a multi-disciplinary group is being convened to take this work forward. 

It was agreed to seek confirmation what the scope will be, e.g. interventions, medications as this guideline had originally been set up as a primary care resource. 

• Action – feedback required on scope of the review

Action 16 – the SLWG has continued to meet, and discussions have been held with Clinicians and Service Managers which will now go to board analysts to review the suggestions and requirements. 

The Task Force was asked to note that return data was not currently collected and the data collection SLWG was asked to consider that: 

• return data is collected, however important to recognise this is a wider issue than chronic pain services
• PHS is asked to look at how meaningful return data can be collected and what the costing would be
• collection of non-medic first contacts is a priority
• Active Clinical Referral Triage (ACRT) recording should be recorded – and look to standardise across Scotland

Finance and commissioning

Confirmed no further change or update. There is no indication of funding position for next year (24/25).

Communications

Subscriptions are still around 80 people. Suggestions from the Task Force were to look to publicise the newsletter on the Toolkits, NHS Inform pages and the Alliance website. There is also an option to add to the Centre for Sustainable Delivery pages. 

2023/24-year 2 implementation update Year 2

Publication delayed following feedback received during the stakeholder engagement that we should extend the stakeholder engagement period.

There is a Professional Advisors Group in SG across all of health and social care that meets monthly - it may be an idea to book into that to present on this work closer to Nov (secretariat provided Realistic Medicine)

• Action – date to be scheduled with PAG

The meeting went to breakout rooms to allow the members to provide feedback on the Year 2 of the plan. 

Date of next meeting

Wednesday 06 September 2023 at 10.30 am via MS Teams