EDMONTON – Negotiations have broken down between Alberta Health Services (AHS) and doctors running the Methadone Program in Edmonton; and that has some patients extremely worried about what it will mean for their treatment.
Melody Walsh is one of them. After having back surgery in 1999, she became addicted to OxyContin.
“At that time, they said that was the new wonder drug. But no, it’s not. So (doctors) ended up putting me on methadone to get me off the OxyContin, which was great because on the methadone I’m able to function.”
She calls the drug “a godsend.”
Dr. Charl Els, an addiction psychiatrist, explains that methadone is a treatment used in cases of dependency on opiates like OxyContin, heroin, or Percocet. He says it’s not uncommon for people to be on methadone for years, and some, even for life.
“Methadone is stopped very slowly,” Els adds, “over the course of several months, in most cases.”
But on Wednesday, Walsh says she was told that her last dosage would be in 11 days.
“Everybody in the office yesterday, there was grown men crying…because they don’t know what they’re going to do. I’ve been able to function for the last six years because of the methadone. On the OxyContin, I couldn’t function. And now they’re taking that away from people.”
The AHS medical director for the Edmonton zone, Dr. David Mador, says the clinic is not closing. However, in an internal letter obtained by Global News (which can be read in its entirety below), AHS refers to the “change in physician workforce” as “a serious and urgent situation.”
The problem boils down to the fact that not every doctor can prescribe methadone.
“In order to treat with methadone,” explains Els, “you need an exception from the federal government…that follows an extensive training. And it’s a very highly regulated drug, obviously, because it’s a dangerous compound.”
So AHS is seeking doctors to replace those who they are losing to the contract dispute. In the meantime, appointments are being set up with the approximately 540 patients in the Methadone Program to help them through this “transition.”
“We’re making arrangements with the co-operation of other physicians to make sure that all of our patients are seen, and their prescriptions renewed.”
In the internal letter, Dr. Michael Trew, Medical Director of Alberta Health’s Addiction and Mental Health department writes:
“The acute situation is that there is no possibility of this being adequate to cover transfer of this many Patients over a short period of time…If you are able to be of any assistance to some of these patients to help during the next few months of transition, it would be greatly appreciated. This is a time to focus on the needs of these vulnerable individuals, rather than dwell on how we arrived at such a serious situation.”
In the last week, Els says he’s already received as many calls from patients seeking methadone treatment than he has in the last 10 years.
He also explains that stopping methadone “the wrong way,” can pose significant complications.
“The biggest risk here is that they will end up in the emergency rooms, which are already packed. And second, there’s a high likelihood that people who don’t have access to methadone may relapse to the drug that they used to use, for example, OxyContin.”
Walsh is trying to find another doctor who will prescribe her the drug so that that doesn’t happen to her.
“My family is already worried…about what’s going to happen to me in a couple of weeks.”
Meanwhile, the clinic hopes to have things settled by the first week of July. AHS urges anyone looking for more information to call its patient relations line at 1-855-550-2555.
With files from Vinesh Pratap, Global News
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