At Colombo National Hospital:

Pain relief edged out

*Clinic held five days a week

*Around 25 patients treated

Sandasen MARASINGHE

The Pain Relief Clinic at the Colombo National Hospital functioning since 2000 has been closed for six months due to lack of space driving a large number of patients into difficulties.

When the clinic was functioning around 25 patients were treated daily with the clinic being held all five days of the week. Each day around 10 interventional nerve block procedures (C Arm procedures) were conducted using C Arm equipment at the clinic.

Patients now have to go to a private hospital for these treatments. A C Arm procedure (injection) costs around Rs 20,000 with the hospital charges if they are taken in a private hospital.

The C Arm equipment which costs at least Rs 10 million, meant for the Pain Relief Clinic is kept for use at another operation theatre of the hospital.

The Daily News learns that the Pain Relief Clinic was conducted since 2000 in Operation Theatre-G (OT-G) by the Consultant Anaesthetist (Neuro Anaesthesia) attached to the (OT-G) as an additional service. However Operation Theatre G was shifted to the newly built Neuro Trauma Centre on June 14, 2010. Although the need arose to shift the Pain Relief Clinic too to the Neuro Trauma Centre, it could not be done as they could not find space in that building.

The Daily News learns since the head of the Pain Relief Clinic is working as a Consultant Anaesthetist at Operation Theatre G, she could not conduct the Pain Relief Clinic in a separate building. Under these grounds the Pain Relief Clinic which is a very rare clinic in hospitals ceased functioning on August 3, 2010.

It is learnt that Pain Relief Service is as important and essential as other services provided by the hospital.

The Pain Relief Clinic of the Colombo National Hospital was able to support the patients of all three Armed Forces, the Police, Ragama Rehabilitation Hospital, Colombo South and Colombo North Hospitals, IDH, Eye Hospital, Dental Institute, Maharagama Cancer Hospital etc while it was functioning.

When contacted by the Daily News Pain Relief Clinic Consultant Anaesthetist head (neuro anesthesia) Dr HLRN Ranwala stated that the C Arm procedures (injection) using the C Arm equipment should be conducted in a separate room as there is a possibility for others to get exposed to X-rays unnecessarily.

She said that a small room of 12 by 15 feet would be sufficient for this purpose as there are other resources to resume the Pain Relief Clinic.

The Daily News also learnt that the availability of a Pain Relief Service including Pain Relief Clinic is compulsory for a hospital for undergraduate and postgraduate training.