The Patient Ombudsman has summarized the action on pain management in Emergency Medical Teams and proposed measures to improve the comfort and quality of life of patients struggling with pain. What conclusions?
Pain Management in Emergency Medical Teams. MPC proposals
Published Oct. 10, 2023 08:00
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The Patients' Ombudsman analyzed statistics gathered from an analysis of Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs) trips on the amount of painkillers used.
After collecting data and analyzing the information provided by all the provincial governors, the Patient Ombudsman addressed the Ministry of Health with a proposal of measures to improve patient comfort and better realize their right to pain treatment. He stressed that in the current situation it is extremely important:
- Provide postgraduate training opportunities for Emergency Medical Services Team personnel in pain management;
- The possibility of using methoxyflurane in prehospital analgesia as part of the pharmacotherapy of the Emergency Department (the above is used in prehospital care outside Poland).
- Possibility for the Ministry of Health to publish good practices for the treatment of pain in adults in primary Emergency Medical Teams - in pocket-sized or electronic form, available on Emergency Medical Teams' tablets.
The MPC reminds us that as of February 6, 2022, the Health Minister's regulation introducing standards for organizing pain management in outpatients is in effect. The standards require doctors to assess, monitor and properly treat chronic pain. The regulations indicate that treatment is to begin as early as the visit to primary care clinics. Services in a pain management clinic, are provided when a patient's diagnostic and treatment options in primary care have been exhausted, or when there are difficulties in making a diagnosis, existing therapy is ineffective or there is a need for invasive treatment methods.
Bartlomiej Chmielowiec, at a press conference preceding the debate on the treatment pathway for a patient with chronic pain, stressed the importance of introducing an effective pain treatment pathway, overseeing the implementation of changes in facilities and educating patients, who should remember to prepare well for each medical visit so as to tell the doctor as accurately as possible since when the pain has been accompanied, what its symptoms are, what medications have been used before.
Source: MPC
