National Programme —

Medicine Safety

Aiming to reduce severe avoidable medication-related harm by 50% by 2024.

A GP receptionist hands over a prescription to a patient at the desk
Programme
Overview

Aiming to reduce harm from opioid medicines by reducing high-dose prescribing (>120mg oral Morphine equivalent) for non-cancer pain. 


Facilitating a collaborative approach within the Devon system.


Championing the inequalities agenda and patient voice.

Detailed Programme Information

Aiming to reduce severe avoidable medication-related harm by 50% by 2024. 

The national Medicine Safety Improvement Programme is delivered locally by the South West Patient Safety Collaborative. We are focusing on improving the care of people living with non-cancer chronic pain by reducing the prescribing of high-risk opioids (>120mg/day morphine equivalent), for which there is no evidence of efficacy. 

Through 2023-24 we will be supporting Devon Integrated Care Board (ICB) to adopt a whole-system approach to reduce harm from opioids. We are bringing together networks, partners, social prescribers, levers and opportunities in the system that can support a cultural change around the safer prescription of opioids. We will build on the success of the well-established pain cafes in Cornwall. 

Resources for patients and healthcare professionals

We are continually gathering the latest tools and resources to support you to plan improvement projects in order to reduce harm from opioids.

At FutureNHS (login required), you can find helpful resources as you set about to design and deliver improvement programmes for people living with chronic pain, including case studies of deprescribing opioids, methods to identify patients at risk of dependence and/or harm, and interventions designed to maintain lowest possible opioid use.

The national Medicine Safety Improvement team developed and made available a Whole Systems Approach to High-Risk Opioid Prescribing (accessible via FutureNHS) to support local approaches, with shared decision making at the centre, and extending the pathway for prevention.

You can also access a wealth of available resources, case studies and patient stories from the Integrated Care Systems in the South West on the NHS England and NHS Improvement South West website.

 

Piloting Pain Cafes to reduce opioid prescribing

In 2022, we carried out a deep-dive data exercise on opioid prescribing in partnership with NIHR ARC South West Peninsula (PenARC), to understand where to focus our support as part of this programme.  The exercise highlighted Devon as an area in need of support to implement the programme, and the Primary Care Networks within Plymouth specifically as having a higher proportion of people receiving high dose long-term opioids.  This is why have supported a Pain Cafes pilot, which you can read more about in our blog by project manager, Tracey Sargent. Our team of Evaluation and Learning specialists created a logic model, helping to focus the scope of the project, considering inclusion and exclusion criteria, and referral pathways, as well as fundamental ways to demonstrate impact for group participants in the short and long-term. Read the full blog here for further details.

“After spending 25 years on high dose pain medication and learning tools to manage my pain without medication, I have been telling my story to help others. 

Patients listen to patients. We have been on the journey. This is why pain cafes are so important. People in pain can come and meet others in pain; they don’t have to go to the GP or hospital, which can be stressful to start with. 

Doing the work that I do gives me great joy, knowing I am giving others hope – that there is another way.”

 

– Sean Jennings, person with lived experience of chronic pain

Get in touch

Are you a healthcare professional working to reduce harm from opioids, either in Devon, or across the South West or beyond? Our team is here to support you.

For more information, or if you have any questions, please contact us.

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