§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will make a statement on progress being made towards the establishment of a national service framework on the control of pain; [119942]
(2) what estimate he has made of the number of people each year who suffer from the symptoms of pain as part of their (a) illness and (b) injury. [119943]
§ Dr. LadymanIn selecting a topic for and developing and implementing a national service framework (NSF), account is taken of the importance of a health issue in terms of morbidity and mortality, the scope for service improvement and the capacity of the NHS and its partner agencies to implement the framework. Work is in hand on NSFs for renal services, children's services and long term conditions. These new NSFs amount to a significant programme of quality improvement across the NHS and partner agencies. There are no plans to amend the programme at present.
Pain management is an important component of most patients' care and is provided as part of the patient's overall treatment. Data on the pain patients might experience as a reason for admission is not collected.