Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve pain management treatment for people with chronic urinary tract infections.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidelines are evidence-based recommendations for health and care in England and Wales. They help health and social care professionals to prevent ill health, promote good health, and improve the quality of care and services. Practitioners are expected to refer to the NICE’s guidance when assessing, signposting to, and prescribing pain relief medications, including for chronic urinary tract infections (UTIs).

When providing clinical care for conditions such as chronic UTIs, it is a prescriber’s duty to prescribe medicines, including for pain relief, when they have adequate knowledge of the patient’s health and are satisfied that the medicine is clinically suitable for the patient.