Opiate prescribing for non cancer pain (2025)

Woodfield Medical practice, Grimsby

Project summary

Passionate about rational prescribing for pain management and the concerns around the opioid epidemic the practice engaged in a 2-year protocol on tackling the over prescribing of opiates for the management of chronic noncancer pain.

Patients were identified who were on high doses of opiates, high potency opiates and were brought in for additional opiate medication reviews. Patient were counselled in relation to the risks around opiate prescribing and were offered management plans to slowly reduce and stop their opiates when it was deemed that it was not appropriate to continue the current prescribing trends.
Secondary care services who recommended potent opiates for the management of noncancer pain were challenged in relation to their recommendations.

As evident from open prescribing over a period of 2 years starting from April 2022, woldfield medical practice in Grimsby managed to move itself from one of the higher prescribing practices in the area to the lowest prescribing practices in terms of opiates and benzodiazepines.

We have continued with this trend, and the evidence highlights that it is possible to get patients off opiates or bring the volume of opiate prescribing to a much safer level.