Government targets pain-free hospitals nationwide by 2020

He said these hospitals are equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure facilities with adequate specialists to enable patients to recover faster and reduce the illness of patients.

"So far there are 12 government hospitals that have been declared as pain-free hospitals, including Selayang Hospital in Selangor, Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital in Ipoh and Putrajaya Hospital.

"Our hope is to expand it to other hospitals and it can only be achieved by creating skilled workforce with knowledge and undergoing continuous training process," he told reporters after officiating the 11th International Symposium on Pediatric Pain here today.

The concept of pain-free hospitals encourages day-to-day surgery services in which patients need not have to spend the night in hospitals and, as such, speed up the healing process.

It uses a multi disciplinary approach involving collaboration between surgeons, anesthetists, pain management specialists, paramedics, physiotherapists and other medical and health staff.

A total of 450 delegates from 43 countries are attending the three-day conference which began yesterday, including pediatricians, doctors and researchers.