From Göttingen to Namur: A Global Snapshot of How Pain Care Is Being Rebuilt
Published on 09/15/2026 at 07:30 | Editorial boerse-global.de
A free public lecture in Göttingen this month will put chronic pain under the microscope, but it lands amid a much wider wave of change — new clinics, a cannabis-based medicine, and a court ruling that should make any employee think twice before calling in sick straight after a rejected holiday request.
On Tuesday, 15 September, Dr. Philipp Altmannsberger, chief physician at the Evangelisches Krankenhaus Göttingen-Weende, will speak from 18:00 in the seminar room of House 6 about multimodal pain therapy. The session is part of the hospital's "Weender Visite" series, carries no admission charge, and is aimed at patients and anyone else wanting to understand how complex treatment strategies fit together. A second instalment is already fixed for 17 November, when Prof. Peter Neumann will cover living wills and powers of attorney.
A Spanish unit, a German launch, and a collagen review
Specialised pain care is advancing well beyond Lower Saxony. At the Hospital Universitario de Dénia in Spain, an acute pain unit (Unidad de Dolor Agudo) has been running for roughly six months and has already looked after around 100 inpatients. Continuous nerve-block catheters feature heavily there, particularly for complex fractures, amputations and abdominal procedures — an addition to the hospital's existing chronic pain service.
Pharmacologically, the picture is shifting too. The full-spectrum cannabis extract VER-01 has been approved as monotherapy for chronic lower back pain with a neuropathic component, on condition that non-opioid analgesics have not delivered sufficient relief. A Phase III trial involving 820 participants recorded a pain reduction of 1.9 points over twelve weeks, against 0.6 points on placebo. A separate six-month study showed a drop of 2.50 points versus 2.16 points in the opioid comparator arm. Launch in Germany and Austria is scheduled for September.
Knee osteoarthritis also got fresh attention from a large review published earlier this year. Pooling 113 randomised trials with close to 8,000 participants, the analysis suggests that 5 to 10 grams of hydrolysed collagen taken daily over eight to twelve weeks can moderately ease pain and stiffness. No evidence emerged that it builds cartilage tissue, and experts continue to stress strength training as the primary measure.
New front doors for care, and one note of protest
Efforts to bring services closer to patients are producing a string of openings. In Wörgl, the fourth primary care unit (PVE) in Tyrol began operating on Monday under the auspices of the Diakoniewerk. The team at Palais Stawa comprises six doctors plus specialists in dietetics, social work and clinical psychology. The Tyrol Medical Chamber used the occasion to warn that staff could be pulled away from rural areas.
North Rhine-Westphalia has gained the MVZ Schwalm-Nette, now running in Brüggen and Schwalmtal after the councils involved agreed an inter-municipal solution in March 2025. With 13 physicians and 50 non-medical staff, the centre aims to resolve roughly 90 percent of medical concerns on site. About 45 percent of its patients are over 60.
Elsewhere, the Werneck health centre has opened with physiotherapy and occupational therapy practices among its tenants, and Patrick Suklitsch-Wilplinger is due to open a practice for therapeutic massage and pain therapy in Judenburg on 1 October. In Belgium's Namur province, Dr. Julie Duerinckx has inaugurated the region's first dedicated endometriosis centre, built around a multidisciplinary approach to a chronic condition that affects one woman in ten.
Blood pressure at work, tasks shifted to new roles
Prevention is moving up the agenda as well. The German Hypertension League has expanded its information offering for company doctors, citing Gesundheitsatlas Deutschland figures showing that roughly 20 to 40 percent of 20- to 64-year-olds live with high blood pressure. In the first half of 2026, more than 150 companies ordered over 55,000 information items — a 25 percent increase on the previous year.
The AOK Rheinland/Hamburg, meanwhile, is calling for a primary care act that would see physician assistants or community health nurses take over more medical duties. In the insurer's view, the present system creates perverse incentives by rewarding frequent doctor visits. Data from the Barmer Versorgungskompass underpin the debate about shifting care out of hospitals: in 2025, nearly one in five fully inpatient treatments — around 3.5 million cases — could in principle have been handled on an outpatient basis.
Finally, a labour court ruling offers a cautionary tale about sickness absence. The Landesarbeitsgericht Hamm upheld the validity of a summary dismissal in a case where an employee, after having a holiday request turned down, announced he would go to the doctor and then reported sick immediately afterwards. Conduct of that kind can undermine the evidentiary value of a sick note, the court said.
