Practice Patient Agreement when Commencing Opioids and Gabapentinoids
Goal of Treatment
- Decrease your pain to allow you to exercise and rehabilitate your injury.
- Support the introduction of self-care to manage your long-term condition.
What you need to do
- Use your medication ONLY as directed by the GP or healthcare practitioner prescribing your medication.
- Realise that medication is only one part of the treatment.
- Maintain activity every day and try to consistently increase activity level.
- Work with your healthcare practitioners and follow treatment recommendations in addition to taking prescribed medication, some of which will be short term (e.g., opioids)
What you need to do
- Use your medication ONLY as directed by the GP or healthcare practitioner prescribing your medication.
- Realise that medication is only one part of the treatment. • Maintain activity every day and try to consistently increase activity level.
- Work with your healthcare practitioners and follow treatment recommendations in addition to taking prescribed medication, some of which will be short term (e.g., opioids)
Patient responsibility
- Agree to attend regular review appointments as agreed with your healthcare practitioner and actively engage in all treatment recommendations (drug and non-drug interventions).
- Agree to take the controlled drug (e.g., Codeine, Tramadol, Dihydrocodeine, Morphine, Oxycodone, Fentanyl, Gabapentin, Pregabalin) EXACTLY as instructed. I will not change this dose, even if suggested by a hospital doctor, until I have discussed this with the healthcare practitioner prescribing this drug.
- Agree not to request an early supply of your medication because you have run out due to sharing with others or using more than prescribed.
- Agree to not try to obtain further supplies of this medication (or similar controlled drugs) from any other healthcare provider (e.g., out-of-hours, A & E etc) and if you do need to attend another healthcare provider for an emergency, you will inform them that you are taking a controlled medication.
- Agree to not combine any controlled drug with alcohol or illegal/recreational/street drugs. Any urinary drug screen that is positive for illicit drugs, alcohol and the prescribed controlled drug will be considered a violation of this agreement.
- Agree to store this medication safely and securely away from children and vulnerable people and to ensure it is not damaged or lost.
- Report any damaged and lost medication to your practice. Be aware that a report of lost or damaged controlled drug will be recorded in your patient record and you may be asked to report this to the police to reduce the risk of harm to the public. Your healthcare practitioner will not necessarily replace any lost/stolen/damaged medication.
- Repeated reports of lost/stolen/damaged controlled drugs will be investigated and will result in the stopping or reduced amounts per prescription of the controlled drug and possible referral to the police.
- Agree not to share the controlled drug with anyone else. It is illegal to supply a controlled drug which is prescribe for you and only you and could result in prosecution of both you and the person with whom you have shared the medication.
- Agree to inform the DVLA if you are taking a medicine (legal or illegal) which impairs your ability to drive (see Drugs and driving: the law – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)). Failure to do this can lead to prosecution and/or a driving ban.