Frances Fitzgerald
Question:82 Ms F. Fitzgerald asked the Minister for Health the number of general practitioners in the Dublin area currently participating in the methadone maintenance programme. [5913/97]
Written Answers. - Drug Treatment Services.
Limerick East): As the Deputy is aware the provision of drug treatment services in Dublin is a matter for the Eastern Health Board in the first instance.
The most recent figures available to the board are for December 1996 and indicate that there are over 1,900 people in receipt of methadone and registered on the central treatment list. Of these approximately 950 are being prescribed methadone by 58 general practitioners. The remainder are treated in community drug treatment clinics.
Some 35 general practitioners are involved in methadone Protocol schemes, prescribing methadone to 300 patients. These schemes were initiated in March 1996 and involve each patient having a treatment card, which is lodged in a specific pharmacy for the duration of treatment. The Eastern Health Board expects to extend this treatment card to all people involved in methadone treatment in the course of 1997.