Trigeminal neuralgia - can't get treatment for dad

My dad (68 retired) has fairly advanced MS, late diagnosis due to other overlapping health issues, poor mobility and memory loss, so he can’t get treatment on his own and myself and my mum are handling his healthcare needs.

He’s had a flareup of trigeminal neuralgia and it’s become so bad recently that he can barely eat or drink.

But it’s impossible to get the health service to get it treated, we keep being bounced back and forth between the NHS MS service and our GP - the MS service won’t prescribe anything without a face to face GP appointment but the GP won’t discuss anything without a referral from the MS service and the two are just not passing notes between each other!

Now the MS service are saying they want him to get a dental appointment to prove it’s not toothache, but as it’s not an emergency (and we live in a part of the country with poor NHS coverage anyway) it’s going to take a while to get an appointment. All the while my dad is going hungry because there’s barely an hour in the day when he’s in little enough pain to actually consume anything. It’s just so upsetting the amount of pain he’s in week after week

Just so frustrated at having to spend hours and hours on the phone to people during working hours, only to be sent round in circles to different people who don’t read each other’s notes. How can we get the MS service to start taking this issue with the seriousness and urgency it requires?

Something that sorted the problem for me was B12 and no harm in trying before the more heavy duty drugs.
Hopefully, your persistence pays off and get the help you urgently need.

“It is important to keep the body healthy to help manage the pain-pathways. Vitamin B Complex, especially vitamin B12, has some evidence in helping regulate nerve function and may be beneficial.”

Tips For Dealing With TN - TNA

That sounds shockingly poor care - I am so sorry. If any of them spent half the time on helping your father that they’re spending on futile time-wasting bureaucratic nonsense and callous inertia… Honestly!