A new hope: social prescribing in Cornwall

Last November I attended a 1-day event at the King’s Fund entitled ‘Social Prescribing: Coming of Age’. Why did I go? Gut feeling I suppose. I’m a GP in Cornwall with little understanding of social prescribing. But I do have history with the overdiagnosis group and I follow the mantra: winding back the harms of too much medicine. Local pain specialists and I have been on a mission to reduce Cornwall’s (high) levels of opioid prescribing. We’ve done handouts, contracts, sample letters, and videos (all open access if you’re interested),1 for patients and clinicians. Everyone knows the risks of opioids for chronic pain and the lower the prescribing graph gets the more smug we become. But I have a sense of unease. ‘Jim, if I don’t prescribe, what do I do?’ GPs often ask me. Good question. We’ve got some great resources like https://livewellwithpain.co.uk/ to help GPs guide patients in self-management of chronic pain, but reducing opioid doses can be a terrifying and harrowing experience. It is unnatural for doctors to embark on a treatment plan that will …