The 2017 Societal Impact of Pain Symposium was recently held in Malta, where leading experts, top decision makers and stakeholders convened to address this urgent issue and find solutions to help European governments and EU Institutions act and prioritise the societal impact of pain in their policy agenda.

MEP Alfred Sant hosted the seminar, and he pushed for action to tackle the societal impact of pain to find ways to improve pain care policies across Europe.

Dr Sant told participants that around 100 million EU citizens have musculoskeletal pain that causes almost 50% of all absences from work lasting three days or longer and 60% of permanent work incapacity.

Musculoskeletal disease direct and indirect costs, have been estimated at €240 bn each year – up to 2% of GDP across the EU.

The MEP said that in Malta, one in five respondents to a European Commission survey indicated that they have felt pain in the week preceding the interview showing that a significant share of Maltese citizens and their families are affected by the burden of pain.

He remarked that, “pain imposes a heavy burden on individuals’ private lives and leads to enormous costs for healthcare systems as well as for our societies and economies. From the patient’s aspect, pain is not always a temporary symptom of a disease.”

“Pain could also become chronic with the need of specific treatment. Sadly, too few chronic pain patients receive treatment with devastating effects on their quality of life, and eventually on that of their families. Figures show that in Malta, one in five people are feeling pain,” Dr Sant told the Symposium.

The SIP Symposium structured discussions around the following issue areas: pain as a quality indicator for health care systems; European and national platforms addressing the societal impact of pain; impact of pain on labour and employment and challenges, lighthouses and best practices in pain policy.. This will lead to concrete policy suggestions which will be ratified at the plenary at the European Parliament, Dr sant said.

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