Pain Community of Practice North East and North Cumbria - TAPER2

Join us for a session on the TAPER2 project, a locally driven initiative supporting vulnerable patients to “Wait Well” as they prepare for elective surgery—while addressing long-term opioid and gabapentinoid use.

What is TAPER2

Deep End ProjecT: PrimAry care Professionals' Experiences of Reducing opioid and gabapentinoid prescribing in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities in the North East of England.

Objectives of the session:

• Understand how Waiting Well initiatives tackled health inequalities to support patients for surgery and improve their wellbeing.
• Learn about the Deepend Network’s purpose and aims
• The role of the social prescribers, GP and nurses and their integration into the TAPER2 work
• Understand the results and the impact of the project.
• What happens next - Taper3,4,5

We are delighted to welcome the following speakers

• Angela Telford, Nurse Specialist (Inpatient Pain) / Waiting Well NICP Operational Lead
• James Prentis, Waiting Well Lead / Consultant Anaesthetist, Freeman Hospital
• Thomas Lovedawn, Specialist Social Presenter, Waiting Well project
• Rachel Vincent, Senior Clinical Pharmacist, Integrated Care Senior for Inner West PCN, The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Nicole Madden, Strategic Manager, Deep End Network

Who should attend?

Clinicians, commissioners, leaders who are involved with persistent pain, elective surgery, opioid and gabapentinoid deprescribing.

Speakers from TAPER2 team:

Angela Telford - Nurse Specialist (Inpatient Pain) / Waiting Well NICP Operational Lead

She is a highly motivated Inpatient Pain Nurse Specialist with over 25 years' experience of acute and complex pain management. Based at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, she has led a wide range of service improvement projects focussed on enhancing pain management practices, staff training and improving patient outcomes. Angela is committed to advancing clinical practice through evidence-based care, professional development and improving the patient experience through compassionate, effective pain control.

James Prentis – Waiting Well Lead / Consultant Anaesthetist, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

His clinical week mainly involves hepatobiliary surgery. He has undertaken 3 years of research prior to becoming a consultant in the field of risk assessment prior to major surgery and has published widely on cardiopulmonary exercise testing in a variety of surgical patients. His other areas of current interest include developing enhanced recovery pathways, postoperative cognitive decline and critical incident check lists.

Thomas Lovedawn

He works as a specialist social presenter on the Waiting Well project helping patients waiting for surgery. He has been at Ways to Wellness since 2023 and is studying counselling. Before that he helped neurodivergent adults get into employment.

Rachel Vincent - Senior Clinical Pharmacist, Integrated Care Senior for Inner West PCN at The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Nicole Madden - Strategic Manager Deep End Network

She has worked for NECS since 2018 and joined the Deep End Network team in June 2024 as Strategic Manager. Nicole is a senior project manager with experience in commissioning for adults, children and young people in acute and community services.

For more information, please feel free to join our Pain Community of Practice North East and North Cumbria FutureNHS platform (https://future.nhs.uk/connect.ti/NENCPainCommunity/groupHome). You will be able to access a range of resources from a range of sources and be kept up to date with events happening.

During the session

We will keep participants muted whilst we are presenting. This avoids distracting our speakers and reduces sensory stimulation which is important for some people. However, if you wish to ask a question you can do this by adding it to the chatbox.

Please feel free to turn your camera on and off as you need to. If you need it off the whole time, that is totally fine.

If you need a break at any time during the session, then please leave the meeting and re-join again when you feel ready.

Accessibility

Information on accessibility features in Teams can be found here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/accessibility-support-for-microsoft-teams-d12ee53f-d15f-445e-be8d-f0ba2c5ee68f and you can contact us with any other accessibility questions.

If you have additional needs, please email yoyo.kwan@healthinnovationnenc.org.uk and we’ll do what we can to help you.