£1m methadone bill in three years to treat heroin addicts
More than £1 million has been spent prescribing medicine to heroin addicts over the last three years to help them quit the drug.
A total of 171,486 doses of methadone have been prescribed by seven clinical-commissioning-groups (CCGs) in the Black Country and Staffordshire since April 2013.
Health bosses called the new NHS figures 'worrying'. But the cost of prescribing methadone and the number of prescriptions have reduced year on year in that time frame.
Methadone is prescribed to heroin addicts as a liquid in small containers.
They are given doses that are reduced in strength over time to help them kick the habit.
The highest amount of methadone was prescribed in the Walsall CCG area, where £353,232 was spent on 50,809 prescribed doses.
The second highest was in Dudley CCG where £315,623 was spent on 42,898 doses. In Sandwell and West Birmingham CCG, £306,965 was spent on prescribing 43,872 doses.
The figures for each area differed because of factors such as varying population sizes.
Councillor Nicolas Barlow, who chairs Dudley Council's health and adult social care committee, said: "The figures are a cause for concern, but we need to understand what the CCG and NHS groups are doing to try and reduce that figure. The NHS budgets are tight at the moment.
"Methadone is a medication which helps those that are addicts to wean them off those drugs. We need to make sure it is being prescribed sensibly.
"These are a vulnerable group of people, whether they choose this lifestyle choice or not. We need to ensure the support is there for them."
A total of £45,222,499 was spent on prescribing the medication by CCGs across England in the last three years, while 5,873,995 doses were prescribed.
The funds for methadone prescriptions are provided by each local CCG.
The amount of methadone prescribed by Wolverhampton CCG has risen since 2013/14. In that year, the figure was £13,599.64, but this rose to £26,883.47 in 2014/15, and the figure for 2015/16 was £24,087.33. Stafford and Surrounds CCG, Cannock Chase CCG and Wyre Forest CCG have all seen drops in the cost of methadone prescriptions and the number of doses prescribed since 2013/14.
Around the entire region, the overall cost spent on methadone was £1,112,699.
