VETERANS ADMINISTRATION HEALTH SERVICE AND ADDICTION TREATMENT : A DISGRACE
The VA operates the largest integrated health care system in America. The VA delivers health care largely through salaried staff who presumably follow orders when it comes to delivering medical care that is needed, and that is clearly effective. The VA has never been subject to limits on number of patients served by individual doctors or practice groups. The VA performed the nationwide study of "office-based" treatment of opiate addiction with buprenorphine - a study that became the major rationale for making this medication available in a non-"program" setting. And yet - in many states, it offers no buprenorphine at all (e.g., Hawaii, according to US Senate testimony given in January on behalf of the Hawaii Society of Addiction Medicine).Why does our Government tolerate this abandonment of those who have put their lives on the line for our nation? It's a disgrace.
posted by RGNewman, MD @ 9:56 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
The Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York also lacks office based buprenorphine treatment for opioid dependent individuals. This should be no suprise. Their methadone maintenance treatment program is on "life support". It is one of the very few MMTPs that is in dire need of new patients.
Actually, there are MANY vacant slots in NYC as the heroin scene has ebbed significantly, the quality of dope and pharmaceuticals on the street is decent, and people have to be desperate and/or masochistic to enter an methadone program....
I think, addiction treatment centers can help these people to their different sorts of addiction much way better. The only thing for them to do is to submit themselves for treatment and the rest is history.
Post a Comment
<< Home