Draft framework for pain management service delivery

Centering care around patients is essential. Though I think there should be mention of a partnership between clinicians and patients as this will be what enables effective service provision.

A centralised resource, preferably a single website to serve as a one-stop shop for all things self-management and chronic pain guidance is essential to improving patients' quality of care.

Patients, often minorities and women, have their treatment deferred and deferred and are not taken seriously so timely treatment is vital.

Removing the postcode lottery of current treatments is crucial. However, with the word effective in the aim it is difficult as clinical trial-based data is often very hard to come by in pain studies due to hard-to-control variables. Therefore, some treatments should be delivered on a trial basis provided they are safe and should be analysed within the Scottish health service to assess their efficacy.

There should be a greater degree of education to patients in pain management that the principal aim is to improve wellbeing not necessarily to remove pain.

Increasing research funding and introducing national standards will both ensure improved care for all.

The current programmes and services provided by clinicians are tough to change as clinicians feel they offer the best services they can with the resources available and can be insulted by suggestions of change. There needs to be freeing up of more funds and more sensible use of funds, particularly regarding online resources, to help clinicians understand that they can offer better quality of care.