Rehab for addicts: 'Unfavourable comparisons will be drawn'

Published on Thursday 16 April 2009 09:00

NHS Lothian's announcement of a waiting time guarantee for drug addicts preparing to go into rehab was never going to be universally popular.

As long as patients who fall ill through no fault of their own are forced to wait longer than they expect for treatment, and inevitably that will always be the case, then unfavourable comparisons will be drawn.

The reality of life in today's NHS is that decisions on where best to use limited resources have to be made on a daily basis at one level or another.

It is far too simplistic to imagine a bureaucrat sitting in an office deciding whether a pensioner gets her hip replacement first while a heroin addict waits for rehab or the other way around. However, strategic decisions have to be taken which do have an impact on how things work at that level.

Other patients clearly must not suffer as a result of efforts to improve treatment for drug addicts. That is surely something on which everyone will agree.

But concentrating solely on an argument about competing demands for limited resources simply clouds the most important issue.

This should not be a debate about priorities so much as efficiency and effectiveness.

Swifter treatment of drug addicts who are prepared to go into rehab is highly desirable for us all.

While not experiencing the same levels as parts of Glasgow, the Lothians has a deep-seated drugs problem, with more than 3000 registered users of the heroin substitute methadone alone.

Among these addicts are many who feed off the rest of society, through robbery and house-breaking to get their next fix.

Getting them into rehab while they are still more likely to be motivated can only be a good thing, providing the treatment they receive is effective in weaning them off their habit, increasing their chances of living a useful, law-abiding life.

There is perhaps a danger that in setting targets for the speed which drug addicts receive treatment energies will be focused in the wrong direction. It is not so much the timing of the treatment, as its effectiveness which we should be most concerned about, although the two are likely to be linked.

Every serious effort to tackle the region's drug problems should be applauded.

At the same time, the treatments which the NHS is paying for must be rigorously assessed to ensure they are doing what they are intended.