PATIENTS who attend a hospital clinic for chronic pain are to get a chance to question health chiefs about changes to the service.

The meeting has been organised by the York and District Pain Management Support Group, to give people the opportunity to quiz leaders from North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT).

The PCT - which pays for NHS services in the county - has recently announced changes to the way it will deliver services for people who suffer from long-term pain, such as those with back problems.

The changes mean that certain kinds of injections will not now be routinely offered to new patients coming to York Hospital's pain clinic to see specialists.

Instead, special permission will have to be given by a prior approval panel, which has been set up by the PCT as part of a series of measures to save cash.

From now on, new patients will have to be referred to the panel if doctors want them to have potentially pain-relieving facet joint injections.

Epidural injections will be given for people with acute back pain.

But they will not normally be used for those whose condition is described as "chronic" - or long-term.

The meeting is open to any patients who have been to York Hospital's pain clinic.

It follows a packed conference of patients held last week, in which doctors from the clinic outlined how PCT measures would affect the way care was delivered in the future.

Dr Peter Hall, a York Hospital consultant in pain and anaesthesia, said doctors felt it was "iniquitous" that new patients would not be offered the same care as those already in the system.

Linda Hatton, chair of the pain management support group, said: "The reason for this meeting is to allow pain sufferers the chance to ask questions directly to the PCT regarding the recent changes to their treatments, including a reduction of epidural and facet joint injections.

"This is a unique opportunity for sufferers of chronic pain to communicate directly with the PCT, and to seek answers on the financing of their current and future treatments."

The support group was set up in 2002, by patients who had been through the pain management programme at York Hospital. It aims to offer help, support and friendship to other chronic pain sufferers.

It also hopes to widen access, so anyone who has attended the pain clinic, as well as those who have been on the pain programme, can join the group.

The meeting for people to question PCT bosses is being held tomorrow at 7.30pm, at the hospital's social services club in White Cross Road, York.