Increasing access to pain relief in developing countries - An EA perspective

Abstract

The suffering experienced by patients without access to pain relief is very widespread and very severe. When addressing access to pain relief directly, we can address regulatory impediments and attitude/knowledge impediments, though tractability is questionable. Addressing both regulatory and attitude/knowledge impediments is required for success. The subject is highly politicised, being intricately tied to policies and attitudes on narcotic drugs. A difficult political landscape make international solutions appear less feasible than national ones. Development of novel painkillers is another avenue, but one that is unlikely to be an area for EA focus. Actors working on this cause include large private philanthropists, public donors, international organisations and non-state actors, academia, and popular media. The cause of increasing access to pain relief in developing countries is thus large in scale, low-moderate in tractability, and low-moderate in neglectedness. It is a terminal cause, having few long term indirect/flow-through effects. Measurement of the impact of interventions to increase access is difficult. Funding training programmes for local champions to work on this issue may be a promising avenue.