Greater than £80,000 of taxpayers’ cash has been spent on hiring taxis to take drug addicts to an NHS clinic to be injected with ‘free’ heroin.
Addicts with ‘chaotic’ life are picked up and ferried to the £4million clinic, the place they’re given the Class A drug.
Earlier this yr, the Mail revealed that the heroin-assisted remedy facility had price taxpayers greater than £165,000 per affected person – and had logged 26 overdoses.
The most recent figures, which come amid a row over Scotland’s drug dying fee, the best in Europe, sparked fury at a time when the NHS is in disaster as ready lists spiral.
Anti-drugs campaigner Annemarie Ward, of human rights advocacy service FAVOR UK, stated: ‘That is mainly the state performing as an ‘enabler’ for addicts and inspiring them to not take duty for their very own lives.
Greater than £80,000 of taxpayers’ cash has been spent on hiring taxis to take drug addicts to an NHS clinic to be injected with ‘free’ heroin
‘There’s a distinction between rights and duty. After all individuals have a proper to remedy for dependancy however individuals additionally should take duty for themselves.
‘This takes us into the territory of sick co-dependence, with tens of millions spent on giving sufferers heroin when a spot in rehab is proportionately rather more cost-effective.’
The Mail has been informed that some sufferers have been picked up from pubs or different areas fairly than their very own houses to be taken to the heroin clinic in Glasgow.
Ms Ward, a vocal critic of the SNP Authorities’s drug technique, stated the centre was aimed toward tackling the chaotic life of drug addicts – however the truth that sufferers depend on taxis to get to their appointments suggests it’s failing to revive stability to the sufferers’ lives.
The goal is to assist these whose addictions are to this point superior that methadone has proved ineffectual – so the NHS provides them heroin.
In March, it emerged that solely 24 individuals had participated within the Enhanced Drug Therapy Service (EDTS).
Ms Ward (pictured), a vocal critic of the SNP Authorities’s drug technique, stated the centre was aimed toward tackling the chaotic life of drug addicts however the truth that sufferers depend on taxis to get to their appointments suggests it’s failing to revive stability to the sufferers’ lives
There have been 26 overdoses since 2019, whereas 12 sufferers have been transferred to different help providers.
Now NHS Larger Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC), which runs the EDTS, has disclosed that £80,027 of taxpayers’ cash has been spent on taxis for EDTS sufferers since 2019.
It stated taxi journeys are ‘deliberate and agreed on a person foundation for a short lived interval in an effort to help individuals to have interaction with providers’.
Pharmaceutical-grade heroin is given to addicts on the EDTS beneath medical supervision in a bid to cease them utilizing lethal avenue heroin.
NHSGGC stated in March {that a} whole of £3,966,001 had been spent on the scheme between its 2019 launch and the top of final yr, whereas 24 individuals have been handled to this point.
There have been ’26 situations’ the place present or former sufferers of EDTS have ‘introduced resulting from overdose’.
The well being board insisted that ‘monitoring of sufferers exhibits that those that full a yr of remedy’ have a considerably decreased variety of overdoses throughout remedy at EDTS in comparison with the previous yr.
Final night time, Scottish Tory medication spokesman Sue Webber stated: ‘Whereas these schemes may be supporting some individuals, there are a lot better methods by which close to six-figure sums could possibly be spent on serving to individuals fighting dependancy get the help they should remodel their lives.
‘That features ministers lastly giving their backing to the Scottish Conservatives’ Proper To Restoration Invoice, which might assure a proper to entry remedy to all these fighting dependancy.’
In July final yr, Scotland’s drug dying toll was branded a ‘nationwide emergency’ as official figures confirmed a mean of 4 victims a day.
The Scottish Authorities has insisted ‘there’s a sturdy physique of proof to help the effectiveness of heroin-assisted remedy – displaying it may scale back the usage of avenue medication and improve the probability of people remaining in remedy’.
An NHSGGC spokesman stated: ‘The place acceptable, taxis are offered for service customers all through all Glasgow alcohol and drug restoration providers, together with the Enhanced Drug Therapy Providers, and are budgeted for accordingly.
‘As a result of impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, there was an increase in prices throughout 2020 and 2021, in line with contingencies, the place customers required face-to-face assessments, opinions and interventions.
‘Figures from 2022 present a drop in spend of greater than 88 per cent from 2020.’
