ALBURY-Wodonga’s only pain management specialist says a script register is needed to overcome a growing black market for prescription medication.
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Dr Brett Todhunter has a six-month waiting list and sees about 30 patients on an average day.
The nearest specialists in pain medicine are in Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney.
Dr Todhunter said while availability of pain specialists in the region may be an issue, a simple method of registering patients was already available that may help to reduce the number abusing or overusing prescription medication.
“In terms of opioid prescriptions the problem is tracking them, because patients go to different doctors and can get a standard script and it doesn’t register online,” Dr Todhunter said.
“What’s been introduced in Tasmania is going to be introduced in other states. Opioid prescriptions or S8 drugs as they’re called are registered on a central computer base so that when the person goes to the pharmacist to have a script filled, it comes up on that computer as to when their last script was so they can’t doctor shop.”
He said those who “doctor shop” were partly to blame for the increase in deaths from accidental overdoses in the North East.
“People who do this are definitely contributing to the increase in overdoses, it’s a massive black market,” he said.
Dr Todhunter said education for GPs who had to deal with pain sufferers was another way to tackle abuse, but it could be difficult to strike a balance.
“Education is an ongoing issue in regards to the best treatment for pain and there are limitations of treatment because there are a lot of people with pain that can’t be cured,” he said.
“GPs are usually the first call and the simplest treatment to give people is medication.
