A dedicated residential service is to be set up for chronic pain sufferers in Scotland, the health secretary has confirmed.
Alex Neil said more than 700,000 people would benefit from the measures he set out, which centre on improved local services.
He used a parliamentary debate to outline plans to establish a specialist intensive pain management residential service and increase access to therapies for people in Scotland.
Mr Neil said: “The Scottish Government is committed to providing the best possible care for people with chronic pain.
“That is why I called this debate to discuss this important issue and our plans to improve services for Scottish patients and that means treating patients as close to home as possible every time.
“We expect all health boards to have an action plan in place by the end of this year to improve local services and deliver faster access to the therapies that can help people to manage their pain and improve their quality of life.”
A total of 17 patients had to travel to Bath so they could receive NHS treatment for chronic pain last year, the Scottish Government said.
Mr Neil added: “There will always be a small number of people who require more intensive pain management as often their pain cannot be cured.
“The creation of a Scottish residential service will ensure that those few patients will no longer need to travel outside Scotland to access specialist support.”
Labour’s health spokeswoman, Jackie Baillie, advocated one specialist residential centre for chronic pain.
“Specialist provision, by its very nature being specialist, cannot be scattered across Scotland,” she added.
Tory health spokesman Jackson Carlaw told MSPs that having one Scottish centre where sufferers could be treated is appealing because of the “very, very variable delivery of treatment by health boards across Scotland”.