During Estimates hearings on Thursday 25 July 2024, I asked the Director General of Queensland Health about the number of patients receiving opioid substitution therapy who are losing access to programs because of the closure of private prescribers.
You can read my question and his full response below, or in the official Parliamentary record of proceedings (Hansard) here.
CHAIR: Thank you. Member for Maiwar—a former member of the health committee—I am going to give you our question time.
Mr BERKMAN: That is almost too kind of you; thank you, Chair. I appreciate the opportunity. I refer to the answer to my prehearing question on notice regarding the provision of opioid substitution therapy in Queensland. The minister advised in that answer that Queensland Health does not collect data on the number of patients receiving OST in prison who are then released into the community. I will put this to the director-general at this point. Do you have data on the number of patients displaced due to private prescriber closures? If so, what are the figures for the last two financial years?
Mr Walsh: In terms of the notion of displacing someone, people go onto a transferred waiting list. I think in that answer to the question on notice we talked about how long appointments were made ahead of time. I would need to refresh my memory by looking at the question on notice, but I think it ranged between four and eight weeks in terms of the timeframe. I think that was in the question on notice, but I am happy to clarify that. It was in the order of that. Displacing someone is not something that happens on the program. You would not have someone on a program and then someone comes out of a prison and a person on the program stops to take the person from the prison. That would not be something that would happen.
Mr BERKMAN: I think we may be talking at cross-purposes. I am not necessarily just talking about program participants leaving prison but those who lose a place because of the closure of private prescribers. I understand that that is something that has happened to a significant extent in recent times.
Mr Walsh: I would need to find out. My understanding would be that a person who is on opioid substitution therapy would be transferred or transitioned to another provider should a provider stop providing at some point. If you are aware of circumstances where that has occurred to a person, I would very much like to find out about that. It is not a practice that should occur. A person who is on opioid substitution therapy stopping suddenly is not something that would be advised. If it has occurred, I would like to know that. I also think that the minister would be willing to offer you a briefing specifically on the opioid substitution therapy program if that was something that you would like to take up outside of the committee.
Mr BERKMAN: Absolutely, we would welcome that