FINANCIAL incentives and subsidies need to be offered to encourage pharmacies to participate in opioid replacement therapy (ORT) programs, Victorian Legislative Council member, Fiona Patton, believes.
Addressing the chamber on Wed - International Overdose Awareness Day - Patton noted that ORT programs can be both life-saving and life-changing for patients who are struggling with addiction.
"The prescription of methadone and buprenorphine has been proven to reduce health, social and economic harms caused by dependence on either illicit or licit opioids, most importantly reducing illness and deaths and helping people to stabilise and lead more productive lives," she said.
"But these programs only work when pharmacies participate, so it is vitally important that we encourage pharmacies to provide ORT right across the state.
"Our pharmacies are pillars of our community, and let us not forget that they are also small businesses.
"Elsewhere across Australia other states offer financial incentives and subsidies that support pharmacies to dispense these life-saving medications.
"Victoria is a complete outlier in that it provides no support to pharmacies to provide ORT."
Patton's call for improved access to ORT coincided with the publication of the Penington Institute's Australia's Annual Overdose Report 2022, which revealed there were 2,220 drug-induced deaths in the country in 2020 - of which 75% were unintentional.
The report found that opioids were the most common drug group associated with unintentional drug-induced deaths (856).
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