Urgent! Contact NICE Regarding Removal Of Painkillers For Chronic Pain

If you have read the draft NICE Chronic Pain guidelines or my article about them and are affected or against this upcoming policy regarding removal of painkillers for chronic pain, you need to take action now and send your comments to NICE before the policy goes live!
Anyone can leave comments and you only have until 5pm Monday 14th September 2020 to do so.
It’s very easy to do and I’ve now added step by step information on how to do it below! Don’t waste this chance of giving them your opinions on why these guidelines are wrong and cruel.

If you missed it, you can read my article here or the guidelines on the NICE website here.
All opioids, NSAIDs, gabapentinoids and many other treatments will not be offered for chronic pain and things like CBT, mindfulness and exercise will be offered instead.
Yes that is right, painkillers removed and replaced with things with little evidence, that most people have tried already which didn’t work for them which is why they are on the painkillers they are on!

Everyone who is unhappy should leave their comments. It doesn’t take long and they do read comments. Doctors, patients, organisations, everyone can! (Organisations will need to register as a stakeholder). You don’t need to do anything if you are not an organisation other than fill in the form and return it. It doesn’t as for much information other than the things you are commenting on.

The form, information and guidelines can be found here and is pretty easy to fill in.
There is examples on the form, just read the titles of each column for detailed information on what to write.
You just need to put what publication the comment is about (i.e guidelines), what page number and what line number. You can even leave feedback for it all rather than a specific page. Very easy!

You don’t need word, you can use google docs, Microsoft office online, LibreOffice etc. All free!

For ease of use here are direct links:
All NICE chronic pain draft guidelines and information
Direct link to guidelines (page numbers at the bottom of the page, line numbers on the left)
Comments form (this is what you need to fill in and return)

How to fill the comments form in

Easiest way is to use the guidelines as your base for points you want to raise.
Download the comments form. (You can use google docs, Microsoft office online, LibreOffice which are all free).
If you read the top of each column on the comments form it tells you how to do it there as well!

What to write in each column:‬

First column: Comment 1, then 2, then 3 etc‬
Second column: Put “guidelines“
Third column: Page number – on the bottom‬ / or “general” for comments on the whole of the guidelines
Fourth column: Line number – on the left‬‬ / or “general” for comments on the whole of the guidelines
Fifth column: Your comment!‬

Examples

This is an example of how to do it. You can do it for any section. This shows an example for “opioids for chronic pain”.

Open the guideline document.
For “opioids for chronic pain”, scroll to page 24. On the left you can see line 17 says “opioids for chronic pain”. So this is line 17 on page 24.
Your comment number is 1 then 2 then 3 etc.
You can also type “general” in line and page for a comment on the guidelines in general rather than a specific area.

Examples below

NICE Chronic Pain Guidelines

Return the form to [email protected] by 5pm Monday 14th September 2020

If you need help, comment or contact me on Twitter and I will try to help!
Please share this post to get it to reach as many as possible!

If you would like to read about my experience with chronic pain and the horrific pain I had before the Fentanyl, you can read my about page. I for one could not go back to the pain I had before the opioids. It was unbearable!

2 thoughts on “Urgent! Contact NICE Regarding Removal Of Painkillers For Chronic Pain”

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

error: Content is protected