“The Pain of Pain Management in Times of Economic Crisis”

In times of severe budget restraints with the spillover effect on the health sector still not fully quantified, would it be an exaggeration for a physician to feel as if the Hippocratic Oath may be becoming more and more “stretched” nowadays? As we are still trying to put the effects of the European financial crisis into perspective, the short natural history of the health crisis goes back to 2000. It was then when European politicians developed the Lisbon strategy 2000-2010, envisioning that all citizens would benefit from the constant economic growth and associated development. Towards completion of the decade, we soon came to realize the significance of the economic crisis and how it would interplay with the reforms on the agenda. Stately, upon review of the progress, it was made evident that greater demands for innovation, the growing population and the ever increasing health costs, were here to stay and that only few countries would be favorable to face the inequalities that arise