Critical incident analysis: prescribing opioids in palliative care

Opioids provide relief from severe cancer-related pain, but have the potential to cause significant adverse effects. They are among the top five drugs that are wrongly prescribed and can have potentially fatal consequences. This group of drugs has remained under scrutiny following the Gosport Enquiry. A lack of training and education can lead to significant prescribing errors. Education and training in end-of-life care and the prescribing of higher dose opioids than is seen in regular practice is not the norm and further work needs to be done to enhance the confidence of generalist prescribers in the community and acute setting. This incident led to changes in practice and made improvements locally with regional training, yet further work remains to be done nationally.