‘Drugs unused are like guns in the broom cupboard’ says Dr Myles Conroy.
Too many Australians are being sent home from hospital with large amounts of powerful painkillers, putting them and others at risk of addiction and unintentional overdose, doctors say.
There are also fears careless prescribing by hospital staff is fuelling the thriving black market for prescription opioids in Victoria, where about 300 people die from medication overdoses each year – more than the state’s road toll.
Myles Conroy, a pain clinician at Geelong Hospital, said a study of 334 patients’ at his hospital in 2011 revealed scores were being sent home after surgery with either too much or too little pain medication, and in some cases an inappropriate drug for their pain. He said the analysis, which looked at the painkillers people were being given on the day before their discharge and then to take home, showed about one in four of the 178 patients who were given opioids on discharge did not require them.
In most cases, they were being given boxes containing 20 to 28 Oxycodone and Oxycontin tablets – opioids dubbed ”hillbilly heroin” because of their desirability among drug abusers who will pay $10 to $50 for a tablet.