Funding and support shortfall for doctors impacts on patients
By NICOLE FERRIE
PEOPLE seeking treatment to withdraw from opiate addictions are being turned away or placed on a waiting list because of a lack of funding and support for GPs. Bendigo Community Health has a waiting list for people seeking help and those relocating to the city are being told to return to their previous prescribers for pharmacotherapy. “We just can’t take anymore,” the organisation’s acting general manager of drug and alcohol services Kate Harrington-O’Brien said. The centre has 110 clients who only have access to a pharmacotherapy GP once a fortnight. “The service is not funded for a prescriber which means we have to employ one at a very high cost,” she said. “He sees about 30 to 40 clients each fortnightly visit which is a real burden for him and the clients.” Some Bendigo clients are being forced to travel to Melbourne to seek prescriptions for methadone under the pharmacotherapy program. An apparent increase in the availability of heroin in regional areas threatens to place further stress on the service. “The issue has been emerging across the state for some time,” Ms Harrintgon-O’Brien said. “We have been in this situation for 18 months to two years ... Bendigo is not alone. “We have people relocating to Bendigo because they know there’s a pharmacotherapy doctor here, but our books are full.” Ms Harrington-O’Brien said the lack of structured support for GPs was leaving pharmacotherapy clients without proper services. The Bendigo concerns amplify calls by Victoria’s drug and alcohol peak body for a new model for prescribing methadone to avoid what it describes as a growing crisis in the field. Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association executive officer Sam Biondo said there were problems with the existing model of exclusively using doctors to prescribe methadone. Statewide, about 11,000 clients are on methadone programs to overcome heroin addiction. Ms Harrington-O’Brien said one of the main issues was that GPs were funded by the Federal Government through Medicare and drug and alcohol services were funded through the State Government’s Department of Human Services. “The funding differences do create a problem in that there is no incentive for GPs to take on drug and alcohol clients, especially when there is a general shortage of GPs in the Bendigo area. “Also there is virtually no bulk billing in Bendigo apart from our medical practice. “Most clients can’t afford an up-front $52 fee to go to the GP often resulting in their general health needs being overlooked.” Ms Harrington-O’Brien said several options could be pursued to ease the problems, including state funding for a portion of GP salaries to be dedicated to a pharmacotherapy program, structured support and education for GPs, reactivating a drug and alcohol special interest group and specific incentives for GPs, including possible structural works at clinics to accommodate alcohol and drug specialist nurses.
