Pain Clinic/ Lignocaine infusions waiting lists

Hi Noreen and welcome!

I am so glad that you have received some relief from the Lignocaine infusion. It must make you feel so much more optimistic, although I can understand your apprehension about emigrating with a medical condition.

As far a waiting lists go here; they are usually quite long. However, where you are going to live will also have an effect on that. Some capital cities have less waiting times, but I am afraid that it may still be longer than you would like. The same issue applies to pain clinics. They are usually within the major public hospitals with quite long waiting lists. They are included in the public sector. You wouldn't have to pay for treatment that resulted from a visit to an ER if you are a public patient, but I am not sure if they would do a Lignocaine infusion in that setting.

I guess it might be worth your time to find out where the public hospitals are in the area where you will be living and make some inquiries. Also, make sure that you have an extensive letter from your current doctor with all your medications and other relevant facts on it. The normal procedure here is to have a General Practitioner who will be your treating doctor and he/she will refer you to a pain clinic for your Lignocaine infusion and any other treatment that you may require. You can also access all this via private health, but if you joined a private health fund, there is usually a waiting list for some types of treatment. This is designed so that people can't just join a fund, rush in and have a baby or an operation and then leave. All of the information about private funds in Australia is available on the internet.

Please let us know if we can be of any more help to you and let us know how you are going. It's great to have a forum member from overseas! When will you be emigrating?

Mary

Thank you 🙂

Well in regards to the infusions, my pain specialist had me told me 1 dose would take all my symptoms completely. I turn up on the day only for him to tell me I'll need more than one, and a course will take nearly 2 years! So disappointed on that front, but an improvement is still an improvement!
I'll be living in Adelaide and Cairns, hopefully 🙂 I've heard, in general, the Australian health system is amazing! Would you be able to tell me what the typical duration of the lignocaine infusions are over there? I only had a 40min one, but have read that the 6 hour or 24 hour procedures give benefits that last a lot longer!
Would you also be able to tell me, in general, are the pain specialists open minded? I'm unemployed due to the pain at the moment, and spend the days researching (have Msc in researching science, and also no life :P) alternative treatments that other patients have found beneficial eg low dose naltrexone. However when I bring these up with my current pain doctor he dismisses them, and as there is only 1 pain clinic in Ireland I can't get second opinions!!

I'm hoping to be leaving here ASAP! I've to decide whether I want to get more trigger point injections, if I do it's a 4 month wait, so it'll be the new year then! Having difficulty deciding whether their benefits are worth waiting around for though!

Thank you very much for all the info. Thanks, we don't have any site like this in Ireland, it's a brilliant idea!! And I'm sure I'll be plaguing the site with lots more queries when I arrive!!

Noreen.

Hi Noreen and welcome,
Adelaide would have the longest waiting lists of all, as Adelaide has only one public pain clinic, not that it is bad, actually it is one of the best in Australia, which amazes a lot of people, current waiting times to get into this pain clinic is 2 years, we are the only state lacking in service for chronic pain patients in the public sector. Once in though the treatment and care is top notch, I have been a patient through this clinic for over 8 years now, I am one of the unlucky ones who doesn't tolerate medications, so was lucky to get a Spinal Neurostimulator through this clinic, but again had to go on a waiting list, a year for the trial, and then another year for the final implant, the surgeon was the leader in this field, I had no complications or infections, or lead migration, being the most common fault for them failing.

It is something our moderator Mary is working on to get improved in Adelaide, a greater recognition of chronic pain sufferers and services needed, as a state we need to catch up to what other states are doing and achieving, what one must remember is, as Australia is so big and open the best services are situated in major cities, the further you travel away the less services available, most major public hospitals have pain clinics.

Don

Hello and welcome Noreen. Unfortunately there is no public hospital pain service based in Cairns. The closest one is in Townsville. They have an outreach service to Cairns. http://www.health.qld.gov.au/townsville/Services/pain_clinic.asp Unfortunately I'm sure that the waiting list is probably very long. To find out you could ask your doctor in Ireland to contact the pain clinic and talk to them about your case. Bear in mind that the waiting time for an orthopaedic outpatient's appointment in Brisbane (just as an example) is currently sitting at 3 years.

Treatment in public hospital EDs is free. However if you need opioid medications you may find you are treated with grave suspicion. They get a lot of people trying to access these drugs recreationally, and some EDs have a policy of not giving them out, even if you do have a doctor's letter.

I'm sorry I don't have better news for you!

I don't think that opioids are routinely prescribed for Fibromyalgia because they are not very effective. I think that your best move would be to ask your current pain specialist to speak with one of the pain clinics where you are planning to live and go from there.

As Don has stated, we do have problems with public pain clinic waiting lists in South Australia. However, every case is looked at individually, so it is impossible to know exactly what will happen in your case. When you are referred to the main pain clinic in Adelaide, although there is a long waiting list, there are other things that they have in place to help while you wait. There is an information session and after you have been to that and completed your paperwork, you can attend 4 modules that are designed to help you to manage your pain while you are still on the waiting list. These modules are very useful.

I think the main thing is to have contact with them before you leave via your present pain specialist.

Mary

Wow, can honestly say I'm shocked at them waiting times!! I didn't expect it to be anywhere as bad as Ireland!! I've not responded to any medications either Don, the only thing I found helped was the opiate tapentadol, but developed a tolerance for it very quickly, and the doctors won't up the dosage or put me on anything stronger because they see addiction as a worse thing than chronic pain. If they had actually experienced real pain they wouldn't be long changing their opinion!! I've never even heard of a Spinal Neurostimulator, must look than up!

By the sounds of it, I've picked the wrong 2 cities to visit!! :/ I was hoping to avoid the bigger cities but plans may have to be changed. So if you turned up at the ER due to pain, can they do anything for you? Or do they just refer you to the pain clinics?

That sounds like a good system Mary, despite the wait! We are offered no support while waiting in Ireland. Even when you do get in the system, you only get to see the specialist once a year. Most GPs won't go near the pain meds side of things so if what the specialists put you on doesn't work you've to suffer through a year until you can get a change!

What are private hospitals like, do they cost a mini fortune??

Thanks for all the replies 🙂

Hi Noreen,

The private hospitals don't work quite like the public hospitals here. They don't have specialists who work there per se, but they admit patients there. You can see a pain specialist with or without private health cover. Some of the fee is covered by Medicare and the rest you pay. This can vary from a smallish amount to a larger amount. The only way to find out how much is to ask!

I saw a pain specialist at a different pain clinic in Adelaide, but I had to access the psychologist and the physiotherapist privately. The system is a bit complex to explain here, but you can have a thing called "Extras" cover and although that does not cover you for a private hospital admission, it will pay towards physiotherapists, optometrists, psychologists and a whole lot of other people. It costs way less than full private cover which covers you for hospital as well as extras.

Our GPs here will normally not leave you in excruciating pain. If they do then you can always change. If you turned up at an ER due to pain, they would probably attend to you and then maybe refer you to a pain clinic. I am sure that if it was that bad, they would do something!

Mary

Don't lose heart, Noreen. I think your best bet is to get your doctors to communicate directly before you leave home, and try to arrange for the pain clinics in Adelaide and Townsville to treat you. I know it can be done as I have looked after people with renal failure who have arranged for their dialysis to be done in hospitals along the way according to their itinerary.

If you go to ED in pain in Queensland they tend to use methodone as their first line treatment for anything that panadiene forte (a combination of paracetamol and codiene) won't treat.

Private hospitals do cost a small fortune. But I can give you the name of someone in Brisbane who does trigger point injections in his rooms who is not too horrendously expensive.

I have just remembered that there are some excellent pain management programs being run in Queensland through the General Practitioner Networks. They are not everywhere, but I have met a couple of the people who are integral to them and I can vouch for them. They are not as far up as Cairns though.

What this means is that the GP would write up a care plan for you and you would access all the necessary people for pain management as part of that plan. I stand correction here, but I suspect it wouldn't cost you anything. I also know that there is an area in SA who are looking to adopt this model, however I am not sure how long it will be before they have it up and running.

Mary

No good if I rocked up in a Qld ED then, methadone is on the No No list, down here it is the drug of choice to try and get people of morphine based pain killers, lucky I wear a medic alert tag, otherwise I would be in big problems if I was non coherent.
The suggestion of forward planning sounds like the best bet, if you can get your treating specialists over there to ring, make all the arrangements, and send you over here with a covering letter to what has been put in place.
GP's will prescribe opiates for people in severe pain, but after 3 months they require authorisation for continued use, having a pain clinic looking after your treatment makes this process easier, you don't have to go to the pain clinic for new scripts, as they liaise with your GP outlining what plan has been put in place, I am on slow release opiates, which only requires meds morning and night in a 12 hr cycle, when I get authorisation I get 3 months supply each time, even this process is made much easier as I get my chemist to pre pack my meds in blister pack, mainly because I take a lot of meds for differing conditions, they liaise with the GP when scripts are running out, so it is all out of my hands, they even home deliver my medication.

Don

Welcome Noreen! You will LOVE this great country of ours!! I come from Western Australia....the best state!!

I have always found emergency treatment at hospital to be faultless, if my GP is open I can also go there for drips, morphine and anti-nausea medication and I am very, very grateful that they all look after me so well.

You would also have the option of seeing a Pain Specialist privately. These appointments have a small Medicare refund with a fairly high gap ($190) for the chap I see, but I only see him once per year. The only problem being, it is a long wait to be initially seen, however you can go on a cancellation list, that way your appointment comes up much sooner.

I know here in the West there are Fibro groups too, so there is probably the same on the East coast whom have regular meetings.

It's a long flight from Ireland to Australia, so make sure you take pillows/cushions on the plane to help with your comfort.

all the very best Noreen 🙂

Mary that extras cover sounds good, people keep advising me to get health insurance, but at $100 ish a month I simply cannot afford that!!

Jrp, I've been on panadiene forte for 4 years now, they don't even take a mild headache at this stage! Methadone seems like a big jump tough!! Still, won't say no to trying it. I've gone to the ER here in excruating pain before, and all I got was solphadeine (8mg codeine), despite the fact that I was on panadiene forte and it wasn't doing anything for it :/ I had to google where Brisbane was, looks like it's only down the road from Cairns, oh no it's a 20hr drive :L I cannot get over the size of yer country, it's a bit overwhelming!! Brisbane might have to be shoved into the schedule so! That docs name would be great ta 🙂

Don do you mind me asking what is your ailment?? I'm just wondering do I need a medi bracelet now!! :L The GPs require authorization to prescribe them?

Hi Florrie, I cannot wait to get there!!! Oh wow, GPs do that?? I'm actually already thinking I'll be applying for permanent residence there :L That's not actually too bad, it's more expensive here, and it sounds like you get a much bigger bang for your buck in Aus. Must look into Fibro groups!

Thanks all 🙂

Noreen, I've sent you the details in a private message.
Cheers
jrp

Completely unrelated, anyone know how to change your user name?? why I put in my email address there I have no notion! when I go into 'edit' it doesn't allow a change for user name 🙁 :dry: