DOCTORS and health managers could face jail or substantial fines over the chronic-pain waiting times scandal, a leading lawyer has warned.
The Sunday Post last month told how patients living with chronic pain are being driven to attempt suicide rather than wait almost two years for treatment which should be given every six months.
Patrick McGuire, head litigator for Thompsons Solicitors, warns that corporate homicide laws could see health boards and clinicians facing criminal charges if patients take their lives while waiting too long for prescribed treatment.
Chronic pain sufferers reveal delays in NHS relief treatment have left them suicidal
He said: “If patients are prescribed treatment and that is not forthcoming within a reasonable time, and as a result they take their own lives, if there is significant evidence that a health board or a clinician is aware that could happen and nothing was done, they could face criminal charges.
Elizabeth Barrie, 50, from East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, revealed she had twice taken massive overdoses rather than wait 22 months in between pain-relieving injections prescribed every six months.
She said: “The pain and hopelessness of waiting 22 months for a quick injection which would allow me to live an almost normal life free from most pain was just too much.”
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