Pain has been listed as the 5th vital sign that should not be ignored, so it’s important to ensure that patients experience minimal pain and discomfort at every stage of their medical examination, treatment and recovery, Kiang Wu Hospital Deputy Director Chan Tai Ip said at the hospital yesterday, noting that the private hospital has launched painless intravenous infusion since March this year, with the results having been “satisfactory” in reducing the pain of 80 percent of the patients.
Dr Chan made the remarks during yesterday’s press conference themed “pain-free hospital”.
Since October 2004, the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) has chosen a pain issue each year as a target for the world to work together in the fight against pain and even designated the third Monday of October as “World Analgesia Day”, i.e., October 21 this year.
“Analgesia” is Greek for “feeling no pain”.
Dr Chan said that the hospital, over the years, has been committed to building a comfortable and pain-free medical environment, adding that the pain-free services currently provided by the hospital have covered seven major categories, in which in the area of labour analgesia, the hospital’s epidural labour analgesia* rate in 2022 has already exceeded the overall labour analgesia prevalence rate in the whole country, having reached 65.7 percent in the first half of this year; while in the area of eliminating the fear of pain caused by jabs, the hospital has helped 317 patients in about five months to reduce the pain they felt during the injections with painless intravenous infusion.
“Our pain-free services mainly focus on acute and chronic pain management and post-operative analgesia,” Dr Chan told reporters after the press conference, adding that thanks to the services, patients have their fear reduced “significantly” when facing surgeries: “Over 90 percent of the patients are in a relatively comfortable state after surgery and can rest well”.
According to yesterday’s press conference, in order to provide patients with proper pain relief, the private hospital has been exploring pain-free medical services for more than 20 years. It has been planning, according to Dr Chan, to further deepen the work related to pain-free medical services since the beginning of this year, with the anaesthesia technology team as the core, to fully promote the development of a pain-free hospital.
Dr Chan noted that the hospital has established standard operating procedures for pain management for different scenarios, in order to ensure that inpatients receive appropriate and effective pain management. However, he stressed that the concept of “pain-free” does not mean zero pain.
In his speech, Dr Chan briefed the press conference attendees on the hospital’s development goals of a pain-free hospital, including integrating the resources of various departments, establishing a multidisciplinary collaboration mechanism through an interdisciplinary professional team, continuing to introduce pain-free technologies and equipment, applying pain-free technologies to more medical fields, improving the pain assessment system, and optimising and standardising the existing medical service process, as well as implementing a personalised pain management programme.
*Epidural labour analgesia is a method of pain relief used during childbirth. It involves the injection of anaesthetic medication into the epidural space of the spinal cord, which numbs the lower body. The term epidural refers to an injection or anaesthesia administered into the epidural space of the spinal cord. This space is located outside the dura mater, which is the outermost layer of the protective membranes surrounding the spinal cord. – Source: Poe
Kiang Wu Hospital Deputy Director Chan Tai Ip delivers a speech during yesterday’s press conference. – Photos: Yuki Lei
A local woman undergoes painless blood sampling yesterday.
