Over fifty Australian general practitioners have come under the scanner as part of a national crackdown on inappropriate prescribing of narcotics. The three-month campaign is being carried out by the Medicare following high levels of prescriptions for drugs such as OxyContin and OxyNorm. One GP has been found to be writing over 90 per cent of their prescriptions for narcotics. There are further concerns that the painkillers are being resold on the black market.
Apart from this more than 5,000 warnings were given to clinics about suspect patients. Prescription painkillers authorities believe are being abused include oxycodone - sold as OxyContin and OxyNorm - and morphine sulphate, known as MS Contin and Kapanol. Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme figures show 133,818 scripts were dispensed for oxycodone to treat pain in WA last year, costing taxpayers $5.78 million.
Some cases could be referred to the Professional Services Review, while serious fraud cases will be referred to the Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions. According to Australian Medical Association President Andrew Pesce there is a high chance people are “doctor-shopping” for narcotics. He suggested better data management and warning systems are needed to ensure this does not occur. “So that doctors know if people are doctor-shopping to get prescription narcotics, and they know that if someone is turning up and asking for strong pain-relief…Whether that’s the first time they’ve come in this three months, or whether they’ve seen 15 doctors in the last few days and got prescriptions for that as well…Doctors need assistance in battling this problem,” he added. A combined approach is the need of the day, he said. “We need to recognizes that can happen and we need to recognize that we need a system-wide response to that if we want to manage that…This is a problem across the entire health system. It needs a coordinated response and the medical profession is very keen to participate to that coordinated response.”
Human Services Minister Tanya Plibersek said the 50 doctors being probed had written about 2,500 prescriptions for narcotics and benzodiazepines in the past 12 months. “The misuse of prescription narcotics is a growing problem that destroys lives and tears communities apart,” Ms Plibersek said.
Subiaco drug addiction specialist George O'Neil also said greater monitoring of prescription painkillers was needed to stop rising levels of abuse. He said every time a doctor was about to prescribe a painkiller, they should be required to contact authorities to see if the patient had recently received the drug from another GP. Dr O'Neil estimated that about half of his detoxification patients were painkiller addicts. “They behave the same way as heroin addicts...You would kill your grand-mother if it meant someone gave you some opiates...You just lose control of your life,” he explained.
Australian Medical Association WA vice-president Steve Wilson said more than 90 per cent of doctors followed guidelines when prescribing painkillers. He said some patients became aggressive when doctors refused to prescribe painkillers and he personally had been assaulted in his clinic.
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