It’s not easy trying to beat a drug addiction and it just got harder in the Cowichan Valley.
One of the two physicians in Duncan who were authorized to prescribe methadone, which prevents drug withdrawal symptoms, has moved his practice to Nanaimo, and the other is unable to take on more patients.
Paul Hasselback, medical health officer for central Vancouver Island, says there is a shortage of physicians who can prescribe methadone on the Island….
Hasselback says there are only 60 or 70 physicians on the Island prescribing methodone for three thousand patients and likely more patients would step up for treatment if it was available.
