Tories in bid to end use of methadone handouts
PLANS to end Scotland’s methadone habit will be part of a drugs strategy launched by the Conservatives next week.
The country spends almost £18million a year on the heroin substitute, which is then often taken with other drugs anyway – including heroin.
The party will argue it is time to look again at the nation’s drug problem following statistics showing the number of drug-related deaths could pass 1,000 this year. The Tories want to see that death toll halved over five years while increasing the number of users receiving treatment from 40 to 60 per cent.
Party health spokesman Miles Briggs will lead a Holyrood debate on Wednesday in the hope of securing crossparty agreement for a strategy.
Mr Briggs said: ‘‘We are facing a national crisis in drug deaths and drug misuse. We simply have to act.’
A Tory source said: ‘Parking a generation on methadone is clearly not working. We need to find a way of helping them off addiction and into healthy, fulfilling lives.’
A BMA Scotland spokesman advised caution, saying: ‘Approaches to treating illicit drug-related harms should always be evidence-based.’
THE NHS could save £1billion a year – and alleviate huge suffering – by screening women for their risk of giving birth prematurely, says a leading doctor.
Labour wards could dramatically cut dangerously early births, said obstetrician Andrew Shennan, who has pioneered the approach at St Thomas’s Hospital in London.
Each year 60,000 babies in the UK are born prematurely before 37 weeks – one in 13 births.
The UK rate is one of the highest in the developed world, says premature baby charity Bliss – worse than Egypt or Peru.
Early babies need neonatal support, costing more than £800 a day. On average, each needs eight days in neonatal care, which means an immediate cost to the NHS of at least £6,000.
Those born before 28 weeks spend three months on average in neonatal care. They are also more likely to suffer lifelong disability requiring ongoing NHS support. Professor Shennan said taking relatively simple steps could better identify women likely to give birth too early. Measures can then be taken to prevent premature labour.
Women who have experienced a premature birth or suffered a late miscarriage before are at a higher risk, Professor Shennan said. But too often staff tell such women: ‘Don’t worry, it’s not likely to happen again.’
As a result, obstetricians find themselves ‘firefighting’ – trying to delay childbirth once premature labour has started. Seriously underweight women and those who have had a caesarean after a long labour are also at higher risk, he said.
Professor Shennan recently told BBC Radio 4: ‘If you can keep babies in [the womb] for seven days longer, on average that will save the NHS £1 billion a year.’
The £1 billion saving was based on ‘robust analysis’ by an Oxford University economist, he said. The bulk would come from lower neonatal costs, but reductions in long-term care needed for children with conditions linked with premature birth would also have a big impact.
Despite the size of the challenge, Professor Shennan said: ‘I’m quite certain it is do-able.’
At St Thomas’s Preterm Surveillance Clinic, women concerned about giving birth early are asked questions, scanned for abnormalities and tested for levels of a protein called foetal fibronectin.
The method means 70 per cent can be reassured they are unlikely to give birth prematurely, leaving the clinic free to concentrate on those at higher risk.
These women are intensively monitored and, if necessary, undergo preventative treatment to stop premature labour.
Professor Shennan is now in talks with the NHS about rolling out his plan for better screening of pregnant women.
Dr Matthew Jolly, national clinical director for maternity and women’s health at NHS England, said: ‘The NHS has been working closely with national experts to improve care for prospective mothers at risk of pre-term birth and their babies.’