The Medicines Safety Improvement Programme (MedSIP) commissioned by NHS England and NHS Improvement as part of the Patient Safety Strategy, aims to reduce severe avoidable medication related harm by 50% by 2024.
The Opioids programme (part of the MedSIP) has one primary objective: to improve the care of people living with chronic pain in England by reducing harm from Opioids.
Opioids
Opioids are a highly effective class of analgesics and, when used judiciously, are of great benefit to many people living with pain. However, in the case of ‘chronic non-cancer pain’, when the source of long-term pain does not have a cause that can be treated, opioids can do more harm than good, particularly when used at higher doses.
The Faculty of Pain Medicine has advised that increasing opioid load above >120mg/day morphine equivalent is unlikely to yield further benefits but exposes the patient to increased harm*
Management of ‘chronic non-cancer pain’ requires personalised care and shared decision making at its core with patients requiring a mixture of biopsychosocial support. A whole system approach is proposed to support people to live well with their ‘chronic non-cancer pain’. We are linking with partners across the Integrated Care System (ICS) to facilitate this.
We are linking with partners from the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System (ICS), and in particular with the Morecambe Bay locality to facilitate this and help people to ‘live well with pain’.
Learning from the programme will be shared across the North West Coast to enable the wider AHSN region to spread learning and improvement.
Key ambitions of the Programme
The overall aim of the Opioid Safety Improvement Programme is to facilitate the identification of priority areas, share intelligence and good practice, learning and resources and support the reduction of overall opioid prescribing.
If you are interested in learning more about the programme and the work we are doing locally, please do not hesitate to contact the Project Manager, Gill Harvey
