DOCTORS IN DRUG TREATMENT PROGRAMME SET TO EARN POUNDS 38,000 UNDER
NEW AGREEMENT

DOCTORS who treat drug addicts stand to earn more than pounds 38,000 a year
under a new package agreed by the Irish Medical Organisation and the
Department of Health.

The new deal will apply to GPs who are categorised as level two
practitioners. The first batch of more than 30 such doctors have completed
special training to allow them take over the treatment of addicts under the
methadone maintenance programme.

Level two GPs are allowed to initiate methadone treatment for intravenous
drug users. They are eligible to begin treatment on completion of three
months of supervised practice.

More than 180 GPs have been trained to level one standard. This allows them
to maintain patients on methadone treatment once they have been stabilised
by an Eastern Health Board drug treatment centre or a level two GP.

The new pay scale for level two GPs will be pounds 83.33 per month per
patient for the first 15 patients, worth pounds 15,000 a year the same as
for level one practitioners.

But level two practitioners are to get pounds 98.23 per month per patient
for an additional 20 patients amounting to more than pounds 23,000 per year.

The new deal will be put to IMO members in the coming weeks.