GP SHORTAGE FOR ADDICTS, SAYS AMA

Hundreds of heroin addicts were missing out on detoxification
treatment due to a chronic shortage of trained doctors in Victoria,
the Australian Medical Association said yesterday.

The association claims that only about 10 per cent, or 300, of the
state's general practitioners are trained to deliver methadone therapy.

This is despite there being more than 7500 registered addicts on
methadone programs today and many more in need of detox treatment each
week.

Yesterday, the Victorian faculty of the Royal Australian College of
General Practitioners announced a new drug-treatment training program
that aimed to qualify 300 GPs in three years.

However, John Jagoda, a Victorian AMA council member who has treated
drug users for 28 years, said the college would find it difficult to
recruit interested doctors.

He said a lack of financial incentive was the main reason why many
doctors would chose not to be involved in the program. Methadone
treatment consultations were time consuming and involved too much
paperwork, he said.

Dr Jagoda said a doctor could see three other patients in the time it
took to treat one heroin addict, and yet the fee structure was the
same.

Also, doctors believed drug addicts were likely to disrupt their
practice and unsettle other patients waiting for treatment.

He suggested one way to attract more doctors to the field was for the
government to provide a quarterly bonus to doctors based on the number
of addicts treated.

"There are a lot of heroin addicts seeking treatment and there are
insufficient doctors to treat them. Patients will say it is very hard
to find a doctor in certain areas, especially in rural Victoria."

Despite alternative therapies, methadone was still the standard
treatment for heroin addiction and the first choice for more than half
of drug users seeking help. However, only a small percentage of
Victorian doctors were experts in the field. About 10 doctors treated
about 50 per cent of patients, Dr Jagoda said.

The chairman of the college, David Dammery, said doctors must change
their perception of addicts as dysfunctional people "best kept out of
the way".

"The more we treat them as human beings and patients like everyone
else, the less likely they are to be disruptive."

Dr Dammery, who treats methadone users and is also a member of the
government's Drugs Advisory Committee, said the lack of GPs registered
to deliver methadone treatment was a major problem in tackling
heroin-related deaths.

"You can't say to drug addicts: `come back in a couple of days and
I'll treat you then'. The window of opportunity closes and they go
back to using again."

He said new treatment guidelines - to be released at the end of the
year - cut down on the paperwork doctors needed to complete to
register methadone users.