The oral ones, maybe like morphine, are available but under prescription strictly. Those can be available but only in the inpatient [unit].’ S5 facility C, Doctor, 3 years’ experience

In Uganda, strong opioids were not available at three of the six sites: ‘What we don’t have is pain relief. We do not have strong opioids like morphine but [we] have Ephedrine [and] use weak opioids like ibuprofen, diclofenac, both [in] injection [form]–we have them but some strong opioids like morphine syrup we don’t have, but we have pethedine injection.’ S1 facility G, Nurse counsellor, 24 years’ experience Even where services said they did have access, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical this could be variable: ‘I think it would be good to get oral morphine for pain management because we get certain patients in severe pain and all we have is codeine phosphate.’ S1 facility M, Clinical officer, 9 months’ experience This quotation demonstrates that a lack of access to strong pain relieving drugs was usually recognised Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical as a need by staff; however, this was not always the case, as demonstrated by a nurse counsellor in Kenya: SRT1720 Interviewer: ‘Is pain managed Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical well?’ Respondent: ‘Yes… We have brufen.’ Interviewer: ‘What about cases of severe pain?’ Respondent: ‘We don’t have any other

[medications] except brufen.’ S6 facility A, 6 years’ experience As well limitations in the availability of drugs and a need for staff training Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in pain management, barriers to communication of pain and other problems were also evident. Several patients and caregivers said that patients did not always report the pain they experienced to healthcare staff: ‘In fact, I don’t complain about these problems–take [as] an example this problem with my legs, I haven’t complained about it because Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical I realised that they were not painful as a whole, but I mostly experience pains in the joint.’ P4 facility L, female, age 42, on ART This lack of communication appeared to be related to patients’ perceptions of what staff were interested in and could help with.

Pain control was reported as more challenging in patients with advanced disease, in part due to lack of appropriate drugs (S4 facility Astemizole J, Counsellor, 2 years’ experience). In Uganda, staff training on pain management and collaboration with local hospices was described: “First of all what we did was have a training for some of our staff on management of pain. This was conducted by [the local hospice] and we had clinical officer, nurses etcetera [who] we tried to follow and monitor on this treatment of pain in a larger manner.” S5 facility G, Medical Superintendent, 5 years’ experience Collaboration with and referral to the same hospice which conducted the training was reported to be useful by a nurse at a different service: “[For] severe pain, as I told you we work with [the local hospice. Sometimes they pay visits to us here when there is a pain [facility staff] can’t manage.