Painkiller prescription review for Central Lancashire GPs

Pharmacists have given GPs advice about painkiller prescribing

GP practices across Central Lancashire are to be checked to see whether they are prescribing the strongest painkillers safely.

A review will be carried out to determine whether the level of opiate medication being given to patients has reduced since fresh advice was issued to surgeries in the region last year.

The Greater Preston and Chorley and South Ribble Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) first audited opiate prescriptions in the area following publication of a report into the drugs’ role in the premature deaths of 450 patients at the Gosport War Memorial Hospital in Hampshire.