THE Minister for Health has expressed disappointment at the low level of participation by family doctors in the methadone maintenance programme in Dublin city.
However, Mr Noonan said he believed there had been a breakthrough and more GPs would be joining the scheme. Speaking at the annual conference of the Irish College of General Practitioners in Waterford yesterday, Mr Noonan said there were only 30 doctors treating 700 patients under the programme.
He said he hoped a further 1,000 addicts would be receiving treatment by the end of the year, adding it was vital that more family doctors got involved if the programme was to be a success.
Mr Noonan acknowledged there were security fears among the doctors but said that if more GPs were involved, it would mean fewer doctors with large numbers of patients, which would reduce security risks.
The Eastern Health Board has also invited doctors to dispense methadone to patients from clinics rather than from their own surgeries, which could reduce risks and objections from residents around doctors' surgeries.
"I am very disappointed at the low level of involvement by family doctors and would like to see more coming on board quickly so a larger number of addicts can be brought into the scheme while still keeping the number of patients any one doctor is treating to a minimum," he told the conference.
He said a breakthrough had been made in talks with the doctors and their representative organisations and he was confident more doctors would become involved in the scheme.
The chairman of the Irish College of General Practitioners, Dr Michael Coughlan, said the biggest fear among GPs was that they would get involved in a methadone programme without the necessary back up services.
Security was a major issue and several members had had their premises broken into. There was also opposition from residents to large numbers of drug addicts congregating in their area.
Overall, however, Dr Coughlan said, family doctors were in favour of becoming involved in the programme, "but only if all proper measures are in place".