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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Natasha May

FORGOTTEN HISTORY: Fears for 1 800 patients after victorian methadone provider closes - Caught on Camera

Focus on a pill bottle on a doctor's desk with methadone in a doctor's office/medical setting.
In Victoria there are only a small number of GPs offering methadone prescriptions to 15,000 patients in what is ‘an increasingly broken system’, experts say. Photograph: Thomas Faull/Getty Images

The closure of a Melbourne general practice on Friday will leave more than 10% of Victorian methadone users without treatment in what health experts say is symptomatic of the state’s “broken” pharmacotherapy system.

Pharmacotherapy is recognised by the World Health Organization as an essential treatment for opioid dependency, replacing the drug of dependence with a legally prescribed substitute, such as methadone or buprenorphine.

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