In Western NSW, residents were being prescribed opioid pain-relieving medication at rates of between 78,731 to 110,172 per 100,000 people.

This is in line with other areas of lower socio-economic status.

In contrast, prescribing rates in areas of higher socio-economic status, including Sydney's north shore, were much lower at 10,945 to 34,416 per 100,000 people.

Opioids are medicines to relieve moderate to severe pain and include "hillbilly heroin" drugs such as endone and oxycontin, as well as patches such as fentanyl for cancer pain and norspan for arthritis.

The ACSQHC's first national atlas on the varying patterns of healthcare in Australia revealed some alarming statistics for residents in areas of lower socio-economic status and some geographical areas.

Painaustralia director and pain medicine clinician Associate Professor Malcolm Hogg isn't surprised with the data to emerge from the report.

"Chronic pain has a significant impact on employment, with some 40 per cent of forced workplace retirements linked to chronic pain," he said.

"This is placing enormous strain on primary health services in these locations.

"Clearly we need to do a great deal more to help people with chronic pain.

"Simply writing a prescription may not be sufficient and may indeed be adding to the problem.

"What is needed is training for doctors and access to a medicare-funded care plan for chronic pain which enables general practitioners (GP) to work collaboratively with appropriately-trained allied health professionals to manage people suffering with chronic pain in a more holistic way. Sadly, best-practice multidisciplinary pain programs are currently accessible to only a small proportion of people."

Associate Professor Hogg said the data highlighted the need for the federal government to implement the National Pain Strategy, which called for access to multidisciplinary pain management services for all Australians, irrespective of where they lived.