METHADONE LIST WAIT 'DESPERATE'

SYDNEY -- A psychiatrist has described the waiting lists for access to
New Zealand's methadone programme as desperate.

Glenys Dore, a New Zealander based in Sydney, called for more spending
on methadone treatment, the setting up of private clinics, and an
increase in the number of trained methadone prescribers.

She said the New Zealand programme was excellent, but the problem was
the four to six months people had to wait to get treatment.

A former medical director of drug and alcohol services in Dunedin, Dr
Dore is on the staff of Macquarie University and also works at a
private methadone clinic in Sydney.

She was speaking out in frustration over the fate of a patient about
to return to New Zealand.

She said the man had been close to suicidal in the past when not on
methadone treatment and was almost admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

The man became addicted to alcohol and codeine after he was stabbed
while working as an ambulance officer in Brisbane in 1990.

Before he went on a methadone programme a year ago, he was homeless
and in great physical pain. He had since managed to turn his life
around and had found a partner, who was returning to New Zealand for
family reasons and whom he wanted to follow back.

In preparation, Dr Dore contacted a methadone clinic in New Zealand
but was told there was "no way" the man could be admitted when he
arrived because there was a six-month waiting list.

"I was very angry, distressed, and helpless at being unable to remedy
the situation," she said.

Health Funding Authority services strategy manager Karleen Edwards,
although unable to discuss the specific case raised by Dr Dore, said
yesterday that people wanting methadone treatment would be assessed
according to risk.

An HFA spokesman said there were 400 people on waiting lists in May
last year, rising to 900 by the end of the year.

The HFA spends $6.8 million on methadone treatment, and about $6
million to $7 million on dispensing the drug to 3200 people.

Christchurch had been an area where waiting lists had caused
concern.