Chronic Pain consumers recognised in Federal Budget, so much more to be done.

15/05/24

Last night’s national Budget has recognised the needs of people living with chronic pain and Painaustralia will continue our national conversation on this invisible condition which steals so much from people’s lives.

We are very grateful to the Federal Government which will provide assistance for Painaustralia to continue to undertake communication and awareness work for improvements to the treatment and lives of the 3.4 million Australians living with chronic pain as part of the early detection, prevention and management of chronic conditions.

We know that people with chronic pain take years to get diagnosed and need to see fundamental change and much more research to fund improved treatments. At Painaustralia we will continue to have this conversation with governments and the broader community until every person with chronic pain is seen, heard, respected, and appropriately treated so that pain can no longer steal people’s lives from them.

We also acknowledge the following items to be funded in the Budget which will assist the one in five people over 25 living with chronic pain:

• $22.1 million over two years from 2024–25 to continue support for preventive health and chronic disease research including patient and clinician services for Australians with chronic conditions, in support of the National Preventive Health Strategy 2021–2030
• $49.1 million over four years from 2024–25 for gynecology consultations of 45 minutes or longer with patients who have complex conditions such as endometriosis and pelvic pain.
• $71.7 million over four years from 2024–25 to provide wrap around care for people with severe and/or complex needs in primary care settings, through design and delivery of mental health multidisciplinary services
• $480.2 million over five years for cheaper medicines to reduce patient costs and improve access to medicines.
• $151.1 million over five years from 2023–24, as part of the Eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement, to increase the Dose Administration Aids cap to 90 per week.
• $318.0 million over five years from 2023–24 as part of the Eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement for PBS general co-payments to not be indexed until 2030.
• $2.6 million in 2024–25 to support patient care improvement and general practitioner services, health professional education, condition awareness and digital resources for childhood dementia, juvenile arthritis, stroke, rare diseases and epilepsy.

While Painaustralia acknowledges the funding provided for consumers in this year’s Budget, we will continue to press for further support for multidisciplinary care for consumers who live with chronic pain including:

•  increasing the number of allied health visits under a CDM Referral to 10 per year;
• supporting the development and delivery of specialist chronic pain education and training for health professionals in the primary care setting; and
• supporting the use of the Medicare Benefits Schedule CDM Framework to treat and manage chronic pain not only associated with chronic disease but, also with other medical conditions and, as a condition in its own right.

There is so much to do to change the lives of the millions of Australians in every café, every supermarket, in every bus and in every lunchroom who are struggling to cope every day because of unending pain conditions.

We thank the government for continuing this conversation, however there is so still much more to be done.

Media enquiries please contact Giulia Jones on 0439 958 298