anyone else worried about the possible withdrawal of pain meds via a prescription

[chillijava]

i was listening today on the radio about the news that because of cutbacks that have to made in the nhs, some medications may no longer be available on prescription.

it seems that some will be pain meds, including fentanyl, and lidocain patches, does this worry anyone else as to where this will end.

i know a lot of you will be on pregablin(lyrica) and we all know how expensive a drug it is and it makes me wonder if this will be next, we need to have a lot of choice of pain meds as most of us take a cocktail to try and get some pain relief and it worries me that if that choice is taken away, we could be in pain with nothing to take it away, as not everyone will respond or be able take what pain meds are left on the list

andreax

[Alaine1 Administrator]

Hi Andrea

I've known that lidocaine patches have in many areas been on a prescribing 'blacklist' for many years. Fortunately mine was prescribed by the pain clinic alongside my other pain medications including lyrica. At the moment I don't feel overly concerned about this as perhaps some of the concern is that prescriptions are being written when there is no obvious benefit to some patients i.e the patient has consistently said they've not helped despite increasing the dose of lyrica. In these cases I'd say it's justified to stop prescribing this drug for that patient. Just stopping this type of prescribing would save the nhs millions each year would could be put to better use. Other non pain medications are prescribed this way including Elmiron and some antivirals when used for severe cold sores. In many cases these drugs are available when requested by a consultant or via the GP but in exceptional circumstances.

It is a concern I agree and I'm sure the future of these drugs and the prescribing of them will become clearer in the near future. Like Andrea I'm keen to find out what people's concerns are over this as last November I was lucky enough to attend a parliamentary event on pain and information from patients is critical in helping to inform these prescribing guidelines. Politicians and parliamentary groups do listen as seen yesterday at the parliamentary event on fibroids and endometriosis which both Judy and myself attended. There is a slow change in how patients are being treated generally, it might not always feel like it but the tide is slowly changing in our favour. This was seen very clearly at the pelvic pain meeting last Monday which is a yearly event organised by Judy and attended by researchers and clinicians. I left feeling extremely optimistic that pelvic pain is finally being treated seriously, clinicians want to help us but they need us to help inform how pelvic pain services are run and for research purposes. That is something I personally thought I'd never say after fighting for well over a decade for my pelvic pain diagnoses.

PS - ☀️my post was slightly longer than intended but optimism is in abundance despite a day of hospital appts and pain ☀️

[Susan1-2]

Have you tried transabdominal/ kegals?

When you pull your stomach in and your belly button to your spine it pulls things up . This is helping me in my recovery. A chiropractor/Art doctor knows this approach. There are a lot of dummies out there practicing medicine. Be careful