Doctors are over-prescribing opioids: CMPA
Posted August 24, 2016 8:24 am.
Last Updated August 24, 2016 8:28 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A group tasked with representing Canadian doctors in legal matters says health care providers across the country are over-prescribing opiods.
The Canadian Medical Protective Association has organized a panel in Vancouver that will advise doctors today on the safe management and prescription of the medications
Dr. Gordon Wallace, the group’s Managing Director of Safe Medical Care, says the medical profession is waking up to the reality that drugs have been over-prescribed and is trying to determine how to best address the situation.
Opioids, including fentanyl and oxycontin, are used to treat pain caused by an injury, cancer or a chronic condition, and the association says nearly all patients become dependent on the drugs after they’re used daily for more than several weeks.
Rates of addiction to the dangerous drugs have climbed drastically, and Wallace says Canada now ranks second only to the US in per capita use of prescription opiods.
He says there are many views about how to solve the issue of over-prescription, and many of those will be examined in today’s panel, which will be held in conjunction with the association’s annual meeting.
Earlier this year, BC’s top doctor declared a public health emergency following a spike in drug overdoses across the province.
