Not What The Doctor Ordered

Four million people in the UK have an addiction to opioids. Only these aren’t the usual class A varieties we maybe familiar with. They are not the drugs whose vice like grip is reported as ruining people’s lives, destroying communities and killing young people; No, these are the lesser know, but socially accepted prescription variety.

The fact is that in the home of the ordinary everyday person a secret resides.

Many people begin taking opioids after injury, operations, for illness and untreatable conditions; but then this normal and everyday action slips suddenly into an addiction.

Why?

What is it about these ‘safe’ prescription medicines that are leading ordinary everyday people into the territory of the shunned drug addicts of the world?

What is it that makes these painkillers so tempting to our brains?

What is it that allows these drugs to grab hold of people to a point that before they realise it, their addiction is entrenched just like any other ‘junkies’? 

Well, opioids, from codeine to diamorphine (which is basically heroin); all act on the central nervous system. They induce a miraculous feeling of well-being; banishing anxiety, inducing a sense of security and easing pain. It is these facts that have made these drugs, these legal class A drugs, popular for many decades.

Just ask the Hollywood film and television industry; they are no strangers to the short lived delights these little pills have to offer.

In fact many of these seemingly innocent painkillers people take everyday are actually so powerful that some of the brands have been affectionately labelled as “hillbilly heroin” (in America).

Yet, the demand for these opioids is still as fresh as the poppy they all originate from.

There has been no slow down on prescriptions; in fact from 1999 to 2008 dispensed opioids have increased from 6.2 million to 14.8 million. Those number equate to a lot of possible future addicts.

Yet, what other options are available for pain relief via the NHS??

Well, not much – either take these drugs or be left with run of the mill Paracetamol, Ibuprofen and Aspirin.

So before we condemn people for taking these heavy duty painkillers think about it; which would you choose if had to,  heroin based pills or excruciating life impairing 24/7 pain??

Not much of an option then.

It is either no pills or take heavy duty painkiller prescriptions and run the risk of becoming a junkie (albeit a self respecting and socially adept junkie).

So is this what the doctor ordered??

Or are the patients to blame for their own addictions by demanding these drugs, when it is made clear often enough they can produce addictive side effects?

What is the solution when this acceptable addiction spirals out of control???

With addiction creating such bad press and negative ideas/stereotypes how does someone exactly admit to the whole world, the world that thinks they are an upstanding and level headed person; that they are in fact addicted to drugs????

What help is out there for these ordinary people hooked on such drugs???

Do they ever receive the help they require or is it merely a case of having to continue to mask their addiction to save face??

What do they do when the pills eventually run out???

OPINIONS PLEASE!!!!!!!

What are your thoughts on prescription medications?? Help or hindrance?

Are these potentially lethal drugs too often dished out like party favours without real pause for thought?

Are patients to blame for demanding the drugs in the first place??

Who is really monitoring the intake of these drugs; GP or patient??

The Declining Health of The NHS

A recent report investigated claims that foreign ‘health tourists’ are able to buy their way onto UK NHS patient lists with GP surgeries.

Apparently these cases of bribery aren’t a one off, but an epidemic. BBC’s Panorama sent undercover reporters to various GP surgeries, where they posed as ‘health tourists’. These reporters subsequently managed to buy their way onto GP lists for substantial amounts of money. They were then referred to hospitals for treatment, even though their complaints were not critical emergencies.

Every health tourist who pays a GP or Health Centre to be registered is handing their money over illegally, and depriving a UK citizen of treatment. The NHS is based on entitlement; as a UK resident you have access to the system, it has nothing to do with how much cash you cough up. This illegal act is heinous enough, but the fact that it then leads to abuse of, an advantage taking of an already under-strain system, is disgusting. People wait long enough for hospital referrals, and to have treatment; even then the service is slow and poor. There is also the post code lottery to contend with; what treatment and medication received depends on where you live in the country! Yet, ‘health tourists’ don’t have this concern, but they are not even UK residents!

People in the UK pay National Insurance to be included in the health system, but they have no privileges. Why then should a health tourist?! This abuse of paying for registration to gain access to the NHS should be dealt with swiftly, before such precious resources are drained dry from the UK residents. Where are the tighter and tougher independent checks, controls and regulations for surgeries to adhere to, to prevent abuses of power? Who is checking on the NHS to make sure money isn’t being wasted and resources aren’t being misused? I mean, it is only a billion pound a year to keep the NHS ticking over, shoddy as it is; but hey that is OK, we have money and resources to waste. The NHS is open to everyone without one question being asked! It seems the NHS believes it has money to burn!

If you are not eligible for free treatment then you should be paying for it, it is that simply surely?! Yet, it is estimated that over the last 3 years health tourism has been allowed to get away with depriving the NHS of over £40 million! It is law that a person has to have been living in the UK for the last year to receive free treatment; although GP surgeries, walk in surgeries and A&E services can overlook this if the case is deemed severe, infectious or life threatening. Hospitals should check a patient’s residential status to ensure they live in the UK, but they don’t; in fact 133 Hospital Trusts didn’t check at all! A mistake, well not one to be forgiven when it has cost the country millions!

People who venture to the UK just to take advantage of what they believe to be another ‘free’ system available for them to abuse should be stopped. It is unfair to expect UK residents to continue paying into a system that is so poorly regulated, and so often abused. Would any other billion pound business be so lax in their regulations and accounts? NO! People in the UK are already paying into the system and hoping they will receive good treatment, but every year the satisfaction with service declines, as money leaks from the NHS. Now one of the reasons for such leakage has been revealed it should be fixed immediately. The NHS’s belt needs tightening, or UK residents will continue to lose out.

The sign says it all!

Copy Right Notice:
© Bex Houghagen and The Savvy Senorita, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Bex Houghagen and The Savvy Senorita with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.