Malaysia's Health Ministry Introduces Pain-Free Hospitals

IPOH (Malaysia), Dec 6 (Bernama) -- The Health Ministry of Malaysia has introduced pain-free services in three government hospitals in a pilot project specially targeting patients who have to undergo painful surgical procedures. Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai said Putrajaya Hospital, Serdang Hospital and Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital (RPBH) were chosen for the pilot project. "This is in line with the development in medical science, particularly in anaesthesia and pain-reducing techniques, surgery, equipment and medication. Under this new service, treatment modalities are integrated to reduce pain suffered by patients," he told reporters ater launching the service at RPBH, here, Monday. According to him, the pain-free hospital concept encouraged day surgery, whereby a patient needed not stay overnight at the hospital and which would hopefully facilitate the healing process. "The service also uses traditional and complementary medicine techniques, especially acupuncture when combined with other modalities, can help patients especially those who have undergone surgery, contain the side effects of pain- relief medication," he said. Liow said the service also used a multi-disciplinary approach involving close cooperation among the surgeons, anaesthesists, pain-management specialists, paramedics, physiotherapists and other medical and health staff. He said the ministry would set aside RM6.9 million (US$2.2 million) to fund the pilot project that encompassed human capital empowerment through training in the country or abroad and procurement of medicines including traditional and complementary, surgery equipment, anaesthetics and analgesics. He noted that the country did not have sufficient pain-treatment specialists, having only 10, besides 11 sub-specialists in pain management, who he said would be the catalysts to expand the service to all government hospitals. "On Nov 7, we signed a memorandum of understanding with China pertaining to Chinese traditional medicine, and we sent a group there to study pain-relief management, in particular acupuncture. "Given that such endeavour takes time, it will take a while to provide the service to all the other hospitals," he said. Liow said a study done in 2007 at 21 government hospitals found that 35 per cent of patients suffered severe pain in the first 24 hours after laparotomy, a surgical procedure involving a large incision through the abdominal wall to gain access into the abdominal cavity. -- BERNAMA