SIP Spain

On the 15^th November 2012 the "3^rd Jornadas Autonómicas Dolor Y Sociedad" took place in the "Consellería de Sanidade". The event was hosted by Plataforma SinDOLOR, Grünenthal, FUINSA (Fundación para la Investigación en Salud), Servizo Galego de Saúde and Xunta de Galicia. Main topic of this meeting was "The Pain in the healthcare system of Galicia".

Galician progress of pain treatment

The platform SinDOLOR organized this conference in order to highlight the progress of the "Strategy for improving pain care in Galicia" and to stress that Galicia is the only autonomous region that values ​ pain as the 5^th constant.

The Acting Minister of Health, Rocio Alvarez Mosquera, thanked the Grünenthal Foundation for their cooperation and continuous support for the various Galician projects that are being developed under the aforementioned Strategy.

The “Third Conference on Autonomous Pain and Society” outlined that Galicia is the only autonomous region that already implemented all procedures of pain assessment as 5th constant and has a proper monitoring with consistent indicators common to all hospitals.

Great support from diverse Galician institutions

The third conference of this initiative, brought together over 130 managers in Santiago de Compostela, health professionals and representatives of patient associations. Galician Health authorities, along with representatives of each group, stated their perspectives concerning the problems and the actions needed to improve the quality of life for patients suffering from severe pain. All these proposals elaborated by multidisciplinary working groups will be reflected in the new health-care regulations regarding chronic pain, cancer and non-cancer pain for the SERGAS (Regional Health Service provider).

Implementation of the Strategy

This meeting showed that SERGAS health professionals began to fulfill the registration of pain in hospitals in December 2010 and that currently all of them are implemented. Of the nearly 147,000 patients hospitalized in 2011, more than 97,000 have 5th pain recorded as constant.

Another measure developed by SERGAS is the constitution of the Galician Pain Care Commission, involving doctors, nurses, psychologists, pharmacists and patients. In addition, since last June a multidisciplinary group, which also includes patients, is working to develop the procedures for chronic pain care in primary care.

For further information visit the SinDOLOR Homepage.