Access to opoids needs to improve

Hyderabad: Less than two per cent of patients who experience intense pain, especially in end-stage cases, are able to access opoid drugs for palliative care, though it has been made easier due to recent amendments to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. The most important segment which nows requires end-stage care is cancer patients for whom pain relief has become very important. A senior pharmacist who is in the palliative care unit in a private hospital said on condition of anonymity: “There is a tendency among doctors and hospitals to go for expensive alternatives. They do not want to take the chance and prescribe drugs which are readily available without legal tangles.” International agencies have chartered out a ‘morphine manifesto’ and urged palliative care units to access opiod drugs to make care inexpensive and less painful.