15th January 2019
£2.4 million grant to help reduce overprescribing of opioids A research team from Keele University’s Institute for Primary Care and Health Sciences has been awarded a major grant of £2.4million from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to investigate the overprescribing of opioid painkillers, and to improve care for patients with persistent pain – without the use of long-term opioids.
This new research programme is led by Keele University’s Professor Christian Mallen, Director of the Institute for Primary Care and Health Sciences and NIHR Research Professor in General Practice, and Dr Julie Ashworth, Senior Lecturer and Consultant in Pain Medicine.
MP Steve Brine, Minister for Public Health and Primary Care, said:
“This exciting research comes at a time when we are tackling overprescribing head on to improve the care of those with long-term conditions and to reduce prescribing costs across the whole NHS. In understanding how we can better intervene at primary care level, we can prevent the complications that arise from long term opioid use which improves the quality of care for patients and reduces the burden on the NHS in the long-term. I would like to congratulate the research team at Keele University on receiving the grant and I look forward to following their progress.”
