The impact of relocation of chronic pain service from hospital setting to community centre on patient experience: a single-centre audit.

Background and aims: The Lothian Chronic Pain Service relocated from a university teaching hospital (Western General Hospital (WGH)) to a community centre (Leith Community Treatment Centre (LCTC)) in 2015. Transportation and geographical location were noted by staff to be potential challenges that could negatively impact on the patient experience. The objective of this study is to evaluate how relocating pain clinic from an urban-based hospital to a peripheral community centre on patient experience.

Methods: An assessment and audit of the impact of the relocation on the Patient-Reported Experience Measure (PREM) of pain services was conducted. Using a nationally developed questionnaire, the patient-reported experience from LCTC was prospectively collected in 2016 and was compared to historical data obtained from WGH in 2014 by National Health Service (NHS) Scotland. All patients attending Lothian Chronic Pain Service clinics were deemed eligible for the audit. Patient demographics were compared between the two data sets. The impact of patient deprivation on patient experience was investigated using the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD16).

Results: Data from 111 patients from LCTC were compared to 206 patients from WGH. Percentage of patients rating care as 'excellent' was found to be significantly greater at LCTC than WGH (0.0049). However, overall patient rating of care from LCTC was not significantly different from WGH data and ratings were higher at LCTC. No correlation was found between patient deprivation and PREM.

Conclusion: There is no clear evidence that PREM was negatively affected by the move from a university teaching hospital to a community setting. As this only reported experiences of patients who attended the service, further studies may be warranted to investigate the impact of patient nonattendance.