Doctors told to collaborate with community pharmacists to improve pain management

GP surgeries should work with community pharmacists to provide better pain management for their patients because it could cut GP workload, take pressure off hospital services, and reduce the financial burden on the UK economy, a report says.

The report, published by the UCL School of Pharmacy and the UK Clinical Pharmacy Association, points out that a fifth of the UK population lives with substantial pain and, at any one time, a million people have a persistent problem that could be better treated and might even have been prevented.

Relieving Persistent Pain, Improving Health Outcomes puts the cost of inadequately controlled pain to British society at …