Steering Group

In a public speech on the 22 April 2009, the Scottish Government Minister for Public Health and Wellbeing, Shona Robison, announced a decision to appoint Dr Pete Mackenzie as the lead clinician for chronic pain in Scotland to ‘provide professional leadership, and take responsibility for driving forward the GRIPS work’. In this speech she said:

‘There’s been no lack of enthusiasm over the years on the part of clinicians for taking forward chronic pain services. Many have succeeded, but the services created have inevitably been patchy, and have not been part of the NHS boards’ strategic planning. Coupled with that, we don’t want the GRIPS report to suffer the same fate as the 5 previous reports on the subject.’

On 12 May 2009 the inaugural meeting of the newly constituted Scottish Chronic Pain Steering Group was held.