Greater Manchester (GM) has one of the highest opioid prescribing rates in England, with opioid use (as defined daily dose/1000 GP registrants/day) of 53.1 compared to 13.9 in London and 36.9 nationally.
In addition, opioid-related deaths and harms, such as dependency and addiction, have become increasingly prominent in the UK. In alignment with other projects and system priorities the GM Medicines Safety Improvement Programme (MedSIP) 2023/24 sought to improve chronic non-cancer pain management by reducing high-risk opioid prescribing by identifying appropriate interventions and resources that can support clinicians and patients to make shared decisions around reducing opioid use and finding alternatives.
The Greater Manchester Pain Management Resources Hub, launched on 17th January 2024, brings together all of the programme outputs in one place.
The Hub was co-designed with healthcare professionals and people with lived experience of pain.
Available to HCPs supporting people living with pain, the resources include:
• Short, accessible guidance for effective consultations developed by GM pain specialists and peer-reviewed by GM clinicians
• Patient self-management information like our experience-based co-designed patient information leaflet and patient stories
• Clinician aids and tools reviewed, and recommended by GM pain specialists
• Shared learning and education like recordings of the Pain Management Workshops that had over 400 attendees and have been viewed over 270 times post-event
• Recordings and presentations from community of practice meetings facilitated by Health Innovation Manchester (HInM), but led and designed by the community membership
• Primary Care Knowledge Boost podcast on Chronic Pain with 9.3k listens to date
• How-to guides to support use of data to understand local population needs
• Information to access related services across GM including social prescribing
