Hotline will help health care officials dealing with opioid cases

By Gillian Slade on August 4, 2017.

Medicine Hat News

Physicians and nurse practitioners who are caring for patients with an opioid dependency will soon have access to an expert on the telephone in a pilot project.

From next week an opioid dependence specialist will advise on prescribing drugs such as buprenorphine/naloxone (suboxone), methadone or naloxone, as well as treating patients with an existing opioid dependency.

“Primary care physicians without experience treating this group of patients often face challenges and require additional guidance. As a result, patients are typically referred to emergency departments or special clinics rather than receiving care with their family doctor,” said Dr. Michael Trew, medical lead addiction and mental health Alberta Health Services (AHS). “This is great news not only for physicians but also patients with opiate dependency.”

The pilot project will run through to February 2018. Phone calls will be returned by one of the four physicians working at the Edmonton and Calgary opioid dependency program clinics.

The United Nations indicates that Canada has the leading per capita use of prescription opioids in the world and that rates of addiction and overdose are correspondingly high, according to an AHS press release. Opioids include traditional opiates such as heroin, morphine, fentanyl and oxycodone, along with synthetic opiates such as methadone.

AHS has teamed up with Alberta Health, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA), and the College of Family Physicians Canada (CFPC) to increase the number of community-based primary care physicians who are trained to prescribe opiate agonist therapy and to manage the care of their patients with this dependency.