National Pain Week will be held from 22-28 July and aims to champion the needs of Australians living with some form of chronic pain.

Chronic Pain Australia will launch the week on 22 July with the release of the results of the National Pain Survey, an annual survey which explains the needs of people living with chronic pain.

In recognition of National Pain Week, the Acting National President of the Pharmacy Guild, Trent Twomey, urged pharmacies in the Chronic Pain MedsCheck trial to take advantage of the extended deadline to recruit more patients until 30 September 2019.

“The success of this trial will be measured by patient outcomes and the more who benefit from having a Chronic Pain MedsCheck the better - the better for their health outcomes and the better for the trial outcomes,” he said.

“To date the trial has seen some very positive feedback with patients benefitting from the face-to-face interaction with their pharmacist, and the subsequent follow-ups.

“More patients from main sites are needed for this research trial. As few as five more patients recruited through main site pharmacies can make a great difference.”

The Chronic Pain MedsCheck Trial has had an extension to patient recruitment until 30 September 2019 (originally 30 June 2019) with final patient follow-up services needing to be completed 3 months later by 31 December 2019.

To date the trial has included more than 1,600 participating pharmacies, over 3,800 patients recruited for assistance with their chronic pain, over 3,100 initial services completed with patients, and over 2,700 referrals of patients to other healthcare practitioners.

For more information about the Chronic Pain MedsCheck Trial, including to find out more about the updates, click here.

The Chronic Pain MedsCheck Trial is funded by the Australian Department of Health as part of the Sixth Community Pharmacy Agreement (6CPA) Pharmacy Trial Program (PTP).

For more information on any key National Pain Week activities, email Chronic Pain Australia Executive Director Benjamin Graham

Source: www.guild.org.au/news-events/news/forefront/v09n13/community-pharmacies-role-in-chronic-pain?_cldee=bWFyaWFAdW5pdHloZWFsdGguY29tLmF1&recipientid=lead-3e390a794ed7e41194032c44fd7e3c9c-69cd3590c6704a86a93711eabc7e6595&esid=4a88a57e-b3a2-e911-940f-2c44fd7e3c9c, viewed 10 July 2019