World-first National Pain Strategy launched
The management of pain in Australia is shockingly inadequate and yet it is the commonest symptom doctors are confronted with every day, according to pain specialist, Professor Michael Cousins.
Professor Cousins released the initial draft of the world-first National Pain Strategy which is to be finalised at the National Pain Summit being held in Canberra on 11 March 2010.
The aim of the strategy is to have the management of pain addressed as part of the Rudd Government’s national health reforms.
The draft strategy is now open for community and expert input. Included in the draft strategy’s recommendations are that:
- Chronic pain be recognised as a disease in its own right.
- Pain be given a diagnostic code along with other chronic diseases to document its prevalence, outcomes and costs.
- When monitoring patients, pain be included as the fifth vital sign (with blood pressure, heart rate, temperature and breathing rate).
- More effort be made to de-stigmatise pain (similar to the successful campaigns to de-stigmatise depression).
“Pain is one of the biggest health issues in Australia today – every bit as big as cancer, AIDS and coronary heart disease,” said Professor Cousins, who is the chair of the summit steering committee.
Professor Cousins said chronic pain was the third most costly health problem in Australia and yet pain management was not on the national health agenda.
“Australia is leading the world in developing a National Pain Strategy,” Professor Cousins said, adding that there was a worldwide move by bodies such as the World Health Organiasation to improve treatment of pain.
The draft National Pain Strategy can be found at http://www.painsummit.org.au
