Prescription Drugs: Addictions

(asked on 26th June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to publish the strategy on addiction; and when a 24-hour helpline for patients needing support for dependence on prescribed medicines will be created.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 5th August 2020

Due to the pressures of the Covid-19 pandemic on departmental resources, the Addiction Strategy is likely to be published early next year. The development of a time-limited national helpline and associated website was recommended in Public Health England’s review of dependency-forming prescription medicines, published in September 2019. The Department of Health and Social Care is working with NHS England and NHS Improvement to oversee the implementation of the relevant recommendations of the review. This includes considering a number of evidence-based interventions to support patients and reduce dependency on prescription medicines, with an initial focus on opioids. The second part of a major independent review by Professor Dame Carol Black into the misuse of illegal drugs in England was launched on 2 July. The Review findings will inform the development of the Strategy.

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