Province plans more MDs to prescribe methadone

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/05/2010 (5841 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE Selinger government hopes to boost the number of doctors trained to prescribe methadone to OxyContin addicts.

Healthy Living Minister Jim Rondeau repeated Tuesday a previous promise that the province aims to enrol 10 to 12 doctors in a training program beginning June 10.

“We hope to have the docs certified quickly,” Rondeau said after facing a barrage of questions in the legislature, spurred by a Free Press story Tuesday that told of surging waiting lists for treatment programs and how some people have died of overdoses while waiting their turn.

“This is an emergency situation. There’s clearly a crisis in this area of Manitoba’s addiction services,” Liberal Leader Jon Gerrard said during question period, while demanding the government provide “emergency funding” to increase access to methadone treatment.

Progressive Conservative MLA Leanne Rowat (Minnedosa) wondered how the government could find “quick-fix money for football stadiums” but do “absolutely nothing to increase the number of treatment spaces” for Manitobans addicted to OxyContin.

“Why is the minister allowing Manitobans to die on a wait list instead of responding to the desperate need for treatment spaces?” she said.

Rondeau said the government is taking a “comprehensive, systematic approach to addictions” recommended by experts, which has included making prescriptions for OxyContin tougher to get and expanding day programming and group counselling programs.

He said the newly trained doctors will deal with addicts in community clinics once their condition has “become stabilized.” Only two or three such doctors are currently delivering these services.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca