TEACHER DESCRIBES HER FEARS OF LIVING WITHOUT PAIN RELIEF
CHRONIC PAIN SUFFERER AND TEACHER RACHEL MURRAY TELLS SORCHA CROWLEY ABOUT LIVING IN FEAR OF WHEN HER VERSATIS PATCHES RUN OUT FOLLOWING A HSE DECISION TO RESTRICT THEIR USE TO POST SHINGLE PATIENTS ONLY
RACHEL Murray was s uper vi s i ng mocks when the pain hit. It got so bad, she had to call another teacher to cover her while she briefly left the room to get a hot pack and anti- i nflammatories j ust t o keep her going. “I was thinking how am I going to get through this?” she told The Sligo Champion. Rachel is just 26 years old but has been in chronic pain since she was a teenager. She suffers from advanced disc degeneration disease in her spine, a heart problem, asthma and had a problem with her hip recently diagnosed.
“It’s quite painful. They can’t give me an injection. I was only just gone 17 and didn’t want to start taking painkillers,” she said.
She’s been taking Versatis patches since she turned 17 years old. “There was never any issue getting them from my pain management team. I put the patches on my lower back and hip. It’s a great form of relief,” she said.
Even with the Versatis patches, Rachel is not totally pain free. “Generally unless I’m really bad I won’t have to take painkillers with it. But this week I’m in a lot of pain,” she said.
She’s now down to her last two packets and is having to cut them in two to try to make them last longer. Each packet would last her about a week.
“At the moment I’m afraid of using what I have left. What am I going to do? I’m in a lot of pain,” she said.
Like thousands of other people in chronic pain, Rachel has been told by her GP that she can no longer prescribe it for her.
“It’s quite devastating for chronic sufferers,” she said.
“It’s unbelievable that people are just being left without them. There was no warning. People are being offered morphine patches - surely an opioid is worse than Versatis?” she said.
Rachel’s only alternative is to use anti-inflammatory drug Difene and Solpadol which contains codeine and paracetamol. Codeine is an opioid analgesic which relieves pain but can only be taken six hours apart.
“Solpadol is quite strong and that and Difene are not great on your stomach or your liver. The Versatis patches have very little side-effects. I know people in the ‘Patch Us Back Up’ Facebook group who were using the patch consistently,” she said.
Rachel can go for weeks without having to use them and then go through periods “like this week” when she’s in severe pain.
She said the pharmacies can buy a box of Versatis for approximately ¤80 and then sells them on for between ¤100-¤190 - “a huge mark-up,” according to Rachel.
“Some people are on disability - to expect them to shell out ¤190 for something they were prescribed with before this...” she added.
For people not on the medical card, they can still get a prescription from their doctor but they have to pay full price. Which for many patients on the medical card, puts Versatis simply beyond their means.
The HSE issued new prescribing rules, directing doctors to automatically give them only to patients with nerve pain related to shingles. Doctors who want to give them to patients due to other conditions must appeal to the HSE.
In the Dáil, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who was questioned on the issue by Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, said the new rules were due to the number of patches prescribed for conditions it was not licensed for as well as the “long-term side-effects”.
He said: “It is not a matter of money but patient safety as well.”
“I was very upset about that,” said Rachel. “He clearly doesn’t know anyone with a chronic pain problem. He isn’t thinking about it from other people’s perspective
“Again, why were they prescribing if for so long and now saying it’s only effective for shingles when clearly they work for other conditions. Does the Government want people addicted to opioids?” she asked.
“If I don’t use the Versatis patches I’m not going to be able to do my job,” she said, pointing to the fact that she has to commute by car long distances daily.
Professor Michael Barry, National Clinical Lead at the Medicines Management Programme, said that he feels that the health service was spending too much on the patches and they were being used to treat conditions that they weren’t developed for.
Speaking on The Claire Byrne Show on RTE One, he said: “We are paying €36 million for a particular product where in many cases there is very little evidence to suggest that it is beneficial.
“The issue is that at a time when we are struggling to pay for cancer drugs, at a time when we’re looking at people in Accident and Emergency on trolleys and we’re told it’s about resources.
“I think it’s very hard to justify spending millions when there are some indications that it simply doesn’t work.”
Professor Barry said people could appeal but Rachel is sceptical: “How many people are going to get approved? How much is all the prescriptions for painkillers and doctors appointments going to cost? It’s just ridiculous.”
Rachel must now take her chances with the appeals process through her GP.
“I’m not feeling sorry for myself. Some people are way worse. Some people are in so much pain it’s beyond what you can imagine,” she said.
SOME PEOPLE ARE IN SO MUCH PAIN IT’S BEYOND WHAT YOU COULD IMAGINE