Emma Hardy, the MP for Hull West and Hessle, will meet with Health Minister, Steve Brine MP, to discuss the ongoing pain infusions situation in Hull and East Yorkshire.
Emma will raise the issue that the advice of consultants is being ignored and that removing pain infusion treatment will increase the risk of mortality for the patients.
86 patients across Hull and East Yorkshire (40 in Hull, 46 in East Yorkshire) are losing their pain infusion therapy treatment because of a funding decision by Hull and East Riding Clinical Commissioning Groups.
Each of these patients currently receives a monthly pain infusion to help them to manage their condition. The patients have a variety of different conditions. In December 2017, they were informed that they their monthly treatments would be reduced to quarterly treatments during 2018 before being completely removed in 2019.
NICE guidelines neither recommend nor warn against use of this treatment and there are other CCGs, such as Lincoln, that have recently increased their use of this treatment. Several of the regions MPs, from both parties, have raised the issue with the CCGs and the Prime Minister and patients have appealed decisions on their individual funding requests.
Emma has been provided with letters from consultants that have said that stopping the infusions will lead to an increased risk of mortality for those patients. My concern is that the CCGs are making their decisions based on funding and not on medical evidence.
Commenting, Emma said “This is exceptionally concerning. When I met with the CCGs, they told me that these decisions were being made based upon the grounds of medical evidence but now we see letters from consultants that tell us that the removal of pain infusions would increase the risk of mortality for patients. How can these decisions possibly be in the best medical interests of the patients if taking it will increase the chance that they might die? I look forward to the opportunity to meet with the Minister and to put these concerns to him directly. My constituents, and especially those who are suffering because of these decisions, should know that I will push him to intervene with the CCG and do everything he can to get them to resume the treatments.”
ENDS
