{"id":10832,"date":"2011-08-31T13:47:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-31T12:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=10832"},"modified":"2011-08-31T13:47:00","modified_gmt":"2011-08-31T12:47:00","slug":"domhnall-macauley-analgesia-and-gp-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2011\/08\/31\/domhnall-macauley-analgesia-and-gp-anxiety\/","title":{"rendered":"Domhnall MacAuley: Analgesia and GP anxiety"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/site\/blog\/icons\/domhnall.jpg\" alt=\"Domhnall Macauley\" width=\"162\" height=\"110\" align=\"left\" \/>Last night we were pulled in by the police. Nothing like a flashing blue light in the rear view mirror to make you feel guilty. They asked for my driving licence and I could hear them call my name in on the radio.\u00a0No problem. There had been a robbery. They got away, apparently, in a car like mine.<!--more--><br \/>\nToday an email from the practice asked that I contact the Directorate of Legal Services urgently. I wasn\u2019t aware of any problems but you don\u2019t phone the health board solicitor with a light heart.\u00a0It was OK. They simply wondered if I could give a rapid opinion on a case.<\/p>\n<p>This week the newspapers are full of stories about abuse of prescription drugs, not to mention an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/343\/bmj.d5142.extract\">article in the <em>BMJ<\/em><\/a>. In our practice, we seem to have an ongoing battle about prescription painkillers. We try to persuade people that they don\u2019t need the strong analgesia commenced\u00a0 unthinkingly at the hospital. We aim to prevent patients getting started, advise them about\u00a0taking too high a dose and try to wean them off when possible. We don\u2019t issue repeat prescriptions and patients must speak to a doctor if they request strong analgesia. Patients are unhappy, it creates huge work for receptionists, and makes our life very difficult.\u00a0 But, what if just one patient was to complain that, on one hand we didn\u2019t give them appropriate analgesia for their pain or, on the other, that we were responsible for them becoming habituated.\u00a0No win. Just one example from everyday practice. It&#8217;s\u00a0a tightrope. No wonder GPs are anxious.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Domhnall MacAuley<\/strong> is primary care editor, <em>BMJ<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last night we were pulled in by the police. Nothing like a flashing blue light in the rear view mirror to make you feel guilty. They asked for my driving [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2011\/08\/31\/domhnall-macauley-analgesia-and-gp-anxiety\/\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1287],"tags":[2516,312,2515,2514],"class_list":["post-10832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-domhnall-macauley","tag-analgesia","tag-general-practice","tag-painkillers","tag-prescription-drugs"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Domhnall MacAuley: Analgesia and GP anxiety - The BMJ<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2011\/08\/31\/domhnall-macauley-analgesia-and-gp-anxiety\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Domhnall MacAuley: Analgesia and GP anxiety - The BMJ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last night we were pulled in by the police. 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