North-South divide in opioid and painkiller prescribing with high use in England’s most deprived areas
A North-South divide over the prescription of high dose opioids and other painkillers has been revealed by Sky News research.
The findings are being described as a “time bomb” of potential addiction problems.
In the North East, the amounts prescribed are three times more per head than in London, according to data collated from Open Prescribing.
For example, a practice in Durham with 18,000 patients prescribes over 1.2 million milligrams of opioids a month, (the rough equivalent of 42,000 strong tablets).
An average UK practice of the same size would prescribe about 480,000 milligrams per month (about 16,000 strong tablets).
The region’s lead pharmacist told Sky News: “We’ve all got to re-educate ourselves” about the potential harms of over-prescription.
Opioids are also prescribed to people in the most deprived parts of the country almost twice as much as those in the most well-off areas.
Social workers and other professionals say that GPs are creating the clientele for a growing black market in prescription drugs, and there is a lack of services to help people with their addictions.
While opioid use has fallen slightly in recent years – prescriptions of other painkillers such as pregabalin are on the increase.
‘I don’t know how I’m alive’
Justine Grant beat an additcion to heroin and was clean for 12 years, but says the drug her doctor later prescribed for pain relief was an even greater challenge
Patients have told Sky News that they struggled to beat their addiction and often turned to illegal dealers to top up their medication.
Justine Grant, from Sacriston, near Durham beat an addiction to heroin and was clean for 12 years, but says the drug her doctor later prescribed for pain relief was an even greater challenge.
She said, “I said I need something like ibuprofen but maybe a bit stronger, and that’s when they prescribed us the pregabalin. It’s very, very addictive. More addictive than anything I’ve taken in my lifetime.”
“I immediately got addicted to one of those a day, and then two and then three and then four. Up until I was taking ten a day. I don’t know how I’m alive.”
Justine was topping up her prescriptions using drug dealers, taking 3,000 mg of the drug a day, costing her £25.
She added: “Everybody’s getting them. The doctors think they’re the new wonder drug and they can’t see the problems they’re causing.”
Advice published by NHS England eight years ago warns doctors that this this type of drug “can lead to dependence and may be misused or diverted”.
It also says that the drug is used as a “commodity for trade” in prisons.
‘What will my little girl do if I don’t wake up?’
When Cheryl Parker was addicted to codeine she was being prescribed 100 tablets every three days, and was in constant fear of overdose
Cheryl Parker, also from the Durham area, became addicted to codeine after complications giving birth. Soon she was being prescribed 100 tablets every three days. She was in constant fear of overdose, but was sick if she tried to withdraw.
She said: “God I used to be ill. Spewing, couldn’t walk, constantly on the toilet, mentally just totally drained. I used to have an inhaler down the side of my bed every night. I used to just be panicking. What would I do if I don’t wake up? My little girl’s there, what’s she going to do?'”
Justine and Cheryl are both housed by Positive Directions, which helps accommodate vulnerable people.
Beverly Crooks, one of its support workers, says there’s little help available for those with mental health and addiction problems.
She said: “For the last year there’s been a lot of suicides through drugs and people not getting help. People really depressed, can’t get any help from anywhere, getting told there’s no one that can come out and see them because there’s not enough staff.”
The director of Positive Directions, Gary Crooks, told Sky News: “It’s an absolutely huge problem and a time bomb that’s been simmering under the surface for quite some time now.”
“Being on the frontline, what we’re encountering is an explosion in prescribed drugs from the GPs, and certainly on the black market.
“A lot of people have been accessing drugs from the dark web, and buying prescription drugs that way, at a real big discount, and selling them on the streets.
“They are extremely addictive and quite often the problem is they’re prescribed by medical professionals and so the people who are taking the prescriptions don’t realise how addictive these substances are.”
‘Primary care is overwhelmed’
Ewan Maule, lead pharmacist for the North East and North Cumbria, says there is a link between poverty, especially in declining industrial regions such as the North East, and chronic pain and this in turn leads to greater use of opioids in certain regions.
However, he says that medical understanding about the risk of opioids has evolved and NHS professionals need to take note.
He said: “The conversation is changing and we are starting to talk about non-drug treatments, non-medicines for treatment of chronic pain, because we know the harm that can be done by opioids certainly long-term, outweighs the benefits.
“We all need to re-educate ourselves. People like me, who were educated 20 years ago, need to change the way we think about things.”
Medical academics in the region agree and a programme is being launched in the North East to use GPs’ databases to contact people on high dose opioids offering help.
Professor Julia Newton, from the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We need to take notice that we’re an outlier in this area and begin to look at why that might be.
“Primary care is overwhelmed at the moment, time is very precious in short GP consultations. And I think sometimes it might just be easier when a patient wants a tablet, for a GP to prescribe or to continue to prescribe a medication.”
Offered heroin at a rehab centre
While getting hooked is easy, finding help to get off is a struggle. Addicts told us that the main rehab centre in Durham, called County Durham Substance Misuse Service – Centre for Change, often has dealers outside and sometimes inside.
One recovering addict said it was a great place to “go for a hit” rather than rehab.
When Sky News paid a visit, a social worker with our team was offered heroin by a client coming out of the premises.
Humankind, which runs the centre, said that it takes any reports of drug use and dealing within its centres “extremely seriously” and it has “strong, well-communicated policies in place prohibiting these acts”.
It added: “Anyone found to be dealing, sharing or using drugs on a Humankind site will be challenged and reported to the police, and any claims of drug dealing are investigated thoroughly.”
When it comes to the government’s levelling-up agenda, clearly this is another area that needs attention. Communities that have seen industrial decline and rising poverty have also added addiction to their list of problems.
Former addict Justine says: “How are they going to break the cycle? There’s no jobs, no help, no future, no dreams.”
And it seems medication is no substitute for investment, jobs and services.
Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield has resigned from the Labour Party.
The 53-year-old MP is the first to jump ship since the general election and in her resignation letter criticised the prime minister for accepting thousands of pounds worth of gifts.
She told Sir Keir Starmer the reason for leaving now is “the programme of policies you seem determined to stick to”, despite their unpopularity with the electorate and MPs.
In her letter she accused the prime minister and his top team of “sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice” which are “off the scale”.
“I’m so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party,” she said.
Rosie Duffield. Pic: UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor/Handout via Reuters
Sir Keir has faced backlash after a Sky News report revealed he had received substantially more freebies than any other MP since becoming Labour leader.
Since December 2019, the prime minister received £107,145 in gifts, benefits, and hospitality – a specific category in parliament’s register of MPs’ interests.
Ms Duffield, who has previously clashed with the prime minister on gender issues, attacked the government for pursuing “cruel and unnecessary” policies as she resigned the Labour whip.
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She criticised the decision to keep the two-child benefit cap and means-test the winter fuel payment, and accused the prime minister of “hypocrisy” over his acceptance of free gifts from donors.
“Since the change of government in July, the revelations of hypocrisy have been staggering and increasingly outrageous,” she said.
“I cannot put into words how angry I and my colleagues are at your total lack of understanding about how you have made us all appear.”
Ms Duffield also mentioned the recent “treatment of Diane Abbott”, who said she thought she had been barred from standing by Labour ahead of the general election, before Sir Keir said she would be allowed to defend her Hackney North and Stoke Newington seat for the party.
Her relationship with the Labour leadership has long been strained and her decision to quit the party comes after seven other Labour MPs were suspended for rebelling by voting for a motion calling for the two-child benefit cap to be abolished.
“Someone with far-above-average wealth choosing to keep the Conservatives’ two-child limit to benefit payments which entrenches children in poverty, while inexplicably accepting expensive personal gifts of designer suits and glasses costing more than most of those people can grasp – this is entirely undeserving of holding the title of Labour prime minister,” she said.
Ms Duffield said she will continue to represent her constituents as an independent MP, “guided by my core Labour values”.
UK
King Charles hails ‘uniquely special’ Scotland as it marks Holyrood milestone – before being hugged by woman
The King has paid tribute to Scotland as a “uniquely special place” for the Royal Family as he marked the 25th anniversary of the Scottish parliament.
At the ceremony to commemorate a quarter of a century since parliament opened at Holyrood, the King said: “Speaking from a personal perspective, Scotland has always had a uniquely special place in the hearts of my family and myself.
“My beloved grandmother was proudly Scottish, my late mother especially treasured the time spent at Balmoral, and it was there in the most beloved of places, where she chose to spend her final days.”
He said we are all “united by our love of Scotland”, paying tribute to its “natural beauty”, “strength of character”, “diversity of its people”, “passions and frequently deeply held beliefs”.
“From the central belt to the north Highlands, across the islands in Ayrshire, in the Borders, the cities, towns and villages, all the coastal communities, who I wonder, could not fail to be moved by this complex Caledonian kaleidoscope?,” he asked as presiding officer Alison Johnstone and the Queen sat beside him.
After he gave the speech, the King was hugged by a member of the public – who said she did so “because of him being unwell”.
The 75-year-old was diagnosed with cancer in February but has since returned to public duties.
Yvonne Macmillan, 59, from East Renfrewshire, attended the anniversary ceremony with her husband Russell who is registered blind and chosen as a “local hero” for work in their area.
“I asked him if he was feeling better and if I could give him a hug. I actually said to him: ‘Can I hug you?’,” she said.
“As I hugged him I said, ‘God bless you’, so it was like God giving him a hug.”
The King listens to the presiding officer of the Scottish parliament at Holyrood. Pic: PA
The Queen sits alongside the King as he makes his speech on Saturday. Pic: PA
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While Sir Tony Blair’s Labour government legislated for Scottish devolution in 1997 – parliament officially opened at Holyrood on 1 July 1999.
The King has made six visits to the parliament since 1999 – while his mother Queen Elizabeth II made 10 visits during her lifetime.
The King arrives at the Scottish parliament on Saturday. Pic: PA
Scottish First Minister John Swinney is one of a number of MSPs who have been at Holyrood since the start of devolution.
He said in his own speech in Edinburgh on Saturday that the parliament has “placed itself at the very heart of the nation”, describing it as a “vessel of enlightenment, invention and creativity”.
The King shakes hands with First Minister John Swinney in Edinburgh on Saturday. Pic: PA
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The SNP’s Christine Grahame is another MSP who has been there since the start.
“Free tuition, free prescriptions, game-changing policies to tackle child poverty, the ban on smoking, the baby box, ScotRail back in public ownership – none of this would have been possible without the Scottish parliament and the strength of our commitment to self-determination,” she said on Saturday.
The King said the devolved parliament has the ability to “touch and to improve the lives of so many individuals”.
Former first ministers Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf take a selfie as they wait for the King. Pic: PA
But he added that “there remains much more to be done” for Scotland, the rest of the UK, particularly with regards to climate change.
“Let this moment therefore be the beginning of the next chapter,” he told those assembled.
“The achievement of the past and the commitment shown in the present give us the soundest basis for confidence in the future.”
A moped riding phone thief was caught red-handed after police tracked the device down hours after he snatched it from a woman’s hand.
CCTV footage released by police showed a masked moped rider mount the pavement in Croydon, south London, to swipe a phone from a woman’s hand on 6 March, while another victim had theirs stolen while they waited for a bus an hour later.
Amari Scott, 20, looked surprised when confronted by officers inside a shop, where he was found with two mobile phones.
Amari Scott was caught red-handed. Pic: Met Police
“We’ve just had a moped rob a mobile phone off the pavement and the phone is pinging in this location,” one of the officers told him in body-worn camera footage before Scott was handcuffed and led away.
Police also recovered a stolen motorbike and Scott, from Sutton, south London, was later jailed for four years.
Two teenagers who committed four robberies in the space of just half an hour were also arrested as part of a crackdown in Croydon.
Aged 16 and 17, the teens were issued with referral orders after pleading guilty to charges of robbery, attempted robbery and attempted grievous bodily harm.
Amari Scott was jailed for four years. Pic: Met Police
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They were behind a spree of eight robberies across Croydon and nearby Bromley, including four within 30 minutes on the morning of 5 August.
Their crimes, which included the knife point robbery of a rough sleeper outside Croydon library, were caught on CCTV.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
One of the teenagers tried to discard a knife before she was arrested after a foot chase, telling officers: “The knife wasn’t mine”.
The other ran away, leaving a knife and his bag, but was lying in bed at home when he was arrested shortly after.
Two teenagers committed four robberies in 30 minutes. Pic: Met Police
The Metropolitan Police said officers are intensifying efforts to tackle robbery and theft, encouraging victims to report incidents as they happen to increase the chances of catching the criminals.
Chief Inspector James Weston said: “We understand the impact that robbery has on victims – it is invasive and frightening.
“That’s why our teams are working so hard to deter and catch offenders to reassure our local community.
“Thanks to the hard work of officers, our partners and community grassroots organisations, we are stepping up our efforts and tackling the issues that matter most to the people of Croydon.”
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