A national programme that has helped thousands of people with chronic pain, while reducing the use of high-risk opioid medicines, has been Highly Commended in the Best Use of Integrated Care and Partnership Working in Patient Safety category at the HSJ Patient Safety Awards.

The programme was led by NHS England's Medicines Safety Improvement Team and delivered through the Health Innovation Networks. Over four years, it brought together Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), healthcare professionals, patients, voluntary organisations and NHS leaders to address one of the NHS's biggest medicines safety challenges: the long-term use of opioids for chronic pain.

The award recognises partnerships that have made a real difference to patient safety. Judges praised the programme's collaborative approach and its success in creating lasting improvements both locally and nationally.

At the heart of the programme was a seven-step Whole System Approach, which helped health systems improve support for people living with chronic pain, reduce opioid-related harm and increase access to safer forms of care. These included programmes that focus on physical, emotional and social wellbeing, as well as helping people to manage their own condition.

The programme achieved and exceeded all of its original goals, including:

• A 5.13% reduction in long-term opioid prescribing.
• A 20.35% reduction in high-dose opioid prescribing.
• More than 12,000 patients accessing support programmes.
• Training provided to 4,462 healthcare professionals and stakeholders.
• The creation of 52 new pain support groups and community cafés across England.

Analysis suggests the programme prevented around 56,400 people from continuing on long-term opioid medicines. It also reduced the risk of medicine-related harm across the population. Prescribing of high-dose opioids, which are linked to a greater risk of opioid-related death, fell consistently across every participating ICS.

Importantly, these improvements continued after the programme ended, showing that lasting changes had been embedded in participating health systems. Data to October 2025 shows the improvements have been sustained: had the prescribing trend continued at pre-MedSIP rates we could have expected over 160,000 more people prescribed chronic opioids, which translates to 16,000 moderate harms avoided and over 2,500 lives saved.

A key reason for the programme's success was the strong partnership between NHS organisations, patients, voluntary and community groups, Local Healthwatch representatives and people with lived experience of chronic pain. Through national events, coaching, shared data and peer-support networks, successful approaches were quickly spread across England.

The programme was adopted either fully or in part by 32 Integrated Care Systems, covering more than three-quarters of England. Evidence suggests its impact extended beyond those systems, helping other areas improve care through shared learning and best practice.

In the East Midlands, Health Innovation East Midlands worked with Joined Up Care Derbyshire and Live Well With Pain (LWWP) to help create a whole-system approach.

Together, the focus was on:

• developing resources and guidelines for tapering and repeat prescribing of opioids.
• embedding the policy for Discharge Medicines Service (DMS) in secondary care.
• provision of funding to increase trained practitioners in LWWP.
• adoption and spread of pain support groups.
• local website development and building relationships across the county.
• creation of a ‘Community of Practice’ to run shared learning events with facilitators of the pain support group.

You can read more about the local programme in a blog.

Gill Gookey, Head of Programme Delivery (Medicines), Health Innovation East Midlands said:

"This award recognises the shared commitment of partners across Joined Up Care Derbyshire and Lincolnshire to improving the lives of people living with chronic pain.

“By bringing together expertise from across health, care, voluntary and community services, alongside the invaluable insight of people with lived experience, we have demonstrated that it is possible to reduce the harms associated with long-term opioid use while empowering people with the knowledge, confidence and support to live well with pain.

“This achievement reflects the strength of collaboration across our region and a shared determination to improve lives through innovation and partnership."