About the programme

Health Innovation West Midlands (HIWM) is commissioned to deliver the national Medicines Safety Improvement (MedSIP) Programme. This programme has an overarching ambition to help patients get the maximum benefit from their medicines, reduce waste and reduce medication related harm in health and social care, focusing on high-risk drugs, situations and vulnerable patients.

NHS England and Improvement launched MedSIP as part of the national patient safety strategy and this is delivered locally by the West Midlands Patient Safety Collaborative (WMPSC).

Programme ambitions

The programme will contribute to the World Health Organisation third global safety challenge to reduce severe avoidable medication-related harm by 50% by March 2025.

Our local delivery will focus on improving the care of people living with non- cancer chronic pain by reducing the prescribing of high-risk opioids. The figure below shows the relationship between the overarching aim of the programme, the primary driver to reduce harm from opioid in chronic non- cancer pain and the five secondary drivers and potential areas for improvement.

The system change model

Management of ‘chronic non-cancer pain’ requires personalised care and shared decision making at its core with patients requiring a mixture of biopsychosocial support interventions. A whole system approach is proposed to support people to live well with their ‘chronic non-cancer pain’.

The WMPSC are supporting key stakeholders in the West Midlands to design, develop and implement a “whole systems approach to high-risk opioid prescribing” to drive system wide changes that will reduce the risk of harm to patients from opioids.

The figure below outlines the seven-phased, whole system approach which the WMPSC will use to support at least one Integrated Care System.

Impacts and outcomes

Impacts and outcomes will be shared once available.

Find out more

For further information on projects relating to the MedSIP programme, click here, or to find out how you can get involved, please contact one of the project team below.

• Caroline Maries-Tillott, Assistant Programme Manager: caroline.maries-tillott@healthinnovationwm.org
• Claudia Li, Assistant Project Manager: claudia.li@healthinnovationwm.org
• Jodie Mazur, Associate Director Implementation & Improvement & MedSIP co-lead: jodie.mazur@healthinnovationwm.org