Dear Patient
At The Valleys Medical Partnership, we take patient safety very seriously. We follow the latest advances in medical research and continually update and review our clinical practice to ensure patient care is of the highest standard.
Recent research has highlighted a significant risk to patient safety around the use of opioid type painkillers for chronic (long term) pain. We know that these drugs are helpful in pain of recent onset for example a broken bone and they are also effective in patients with cancer related pain.
However, recent medical evidence questions the benefit of opioid type painkillers for chronic pain. We now don’t think they are very good at killing pain at all when taken for more than a few months.
Our records suggest that you are being prescribed opioids for chronic pain (please tell us if that’s incorrect) and, because we don’t want to put our patients at risk, we would like to discuss the current research and new methods of managing chronic pain with less emphasis on drug therapy.
If you are interested in reading more around this topic please see the resources at the bottom of the page, or if you would like to review your painkillers with a GP, please call to book a review appointment.
If we don’t hear from you, we will continue to prescribe your medication, although we would encourage you to book an appointment to discuss your options to reduce the risks of potential harm from this medication.
Kind regards,
The Valleys Medical Partnership
Dr R Butler ● Dr V Gupta ● Dr R Handscombe ● Dr B Marney ● Dr T Martin ● Dr L Moss ● Mr G Williamson