Pain Patients Left Behind Again

28 February 2025

South Australia's Largest and Longest Pain Service Forced into Inadequate, Decaying Space

Pain Patients Left Behind Again

Pain patients in South Australia, and especially those in rural and remote areas in Whyalla, Port Pirie, Port Lincoln and Port Augusta, are once again being sidelined, as the Central Adelaide Local Health Network (CALHN) Pain Management Unit (PMU) is being forced by the State Government into a substandard and fragmented relocation.

The biggest pain service in the state—treating 4,000 patients annually—is proposed to be split across two areas and moved into an ageing, 80-year-old decanted tower block, a move that would severely impact patient care and access to services.

This "temporary" relocation, driven by the need to create additional theatre beds for the new Queen Elizabeth hospital building, comes eight years after the pain clinic’s last “temporary” move. It raises serious concerns about the ongoing neglect of chronic pain patients, who are consistently overlooked in the health system.

“This decision is completely unacceptable,” said Dr Marc Russo, Deputy Chair of Painaustralia. “While Painaustralia acknowledges the critical need for additional theatres and more hospital beds, this should not come at the cost of essential pain services. The South Australian Government must ensure proper funding for both, rather than forcing pain patients—especially those in rural and remote areas—to bear the burden of an under-resourced health system.

“Pain patients are always the last to be considered, chronic pain is an invisible condition, but it affects thousands of South Australians who rely on this service.”

Dr Russo said the relocation means that the already stretched PMU staff will find it difficult to manage operations across multiple levels let alone provide additional unfunded services. The service will have no choice but be forced to prioritise pain procedures and infusions, leaving many essential services at risk, including:

• Phone advice for hospital wards.
• Consultation-liaison services at Royal Adelaide Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
• In-person group pain programs due to a lack of suitable group rooms.
• Country outreach to regional and rural areas, including Whyalla, Port Augusta, Port Pirie, and Port Lincoln.
• Acceptance of referrals from Emergency Departments (EDs).

“Patients in rural and regional South Australia will be hit hardest, losing crucial access to care,” Dr Russo said.

“The PMU has been providing outreach services to these areas every four weeks, without being funded to do so. For many of these country pain patients, the PMU was their only lifeline, and telehealth is not always the appropriate treatment option. Many of these patients already have to cope with long travel times and limited medical support for their health needs, and this move will further erode their ability to receive life-changing pain management.

“This move is sending a clear message—if you live outside the city, your pain doesn’t matter.”

Mary Wing from the Adelaide Pain Support Network said the intended move would have a terrible impact on patients, creating additional hardship on a cohort of patients who are already under a great deal of stress.

“More importantly, the temporary location is set on two levels and is not adequate for their needs, so the waiting list will increase. There is also the time that it takes to move twice and that will also cause waiting times to increase,” she said.

“The double move is just going to be disorienting and upsetting for many of the patients. Not all of them obviously, but many patients who live with pain 24/7 are already quite stressed and having to have appointments cancelled due to moves and a downgrade in services for the first location will just make this worse,” she said.

With pain management being deprioritised yet again, Painaustralia is calling on the South Australian Government and health authorities to provide the PMU with more appropriate accommodation and funding to ensure that patients receive the care they actually need and deserve.

“People with chronic pain are already battling an underfunded and under-resourced system, now, even the essential services they do have access to are at risk of being taken away leaving pain patients being treated as an afterthought.

“Chronic pain patients have a higher rate of ED presentations and prolonged hospital admissions if

they can’t access timely chronic pain care. The bottom line is if this relocation happens and you attend your local emergency department needing expert and timely care then expect to be waiting a long, long time as chronic pain patients will be clogging up the ED as that's the only place they can be seen in a timely fashion thanks to this decision by the South Australian State Government,” Dr Russo said.

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