New York – Some critics say New York City’s new policy restricting the amount of painkillers patients can get at public hospital emergency rooms will hurt the poor and uninsured.
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The Bloomberg administration announced Thursday it would limit to three days the amount of narcotic painkillers patients can get.
It’s meant to reduce drug street sales and patients’ dependency on the drugs.
But critics told The New York Times (http://nyti.ms/TNNukT ) the poor sometimes use emergency rooms for their primary care.
Dr. Alex Rosenau of the American College of Emergency Physicians said doctors should be allowed to rely on their own judgment.
The three-day limit applies to painkillers like Vicodin. Long-acting painkillers like Oxycontin won’t be dispensed at all.
The policy doesn’t apply to patients needing palliative care.
Not a bad idea, provided the legitimate patients have access to care before the 3 day script is finished. I once had to wait two weeks for a tooth extraction, the only thing that let me function was the prescription. Ultimately, the physicians are the only ones qualified to make public health policy.
When Bloomberg says anything, people take it with skepticism. It’s usually either $$$ or his anti religious bias that is the real reason.
Idiot !!!
His an Idiot !!! They r just going to be back in 3 days for more. waste more hospital resources and increase ER wait times !!! I wish he would just go AWAY !!!
There are many versions of drug addiction, with street drugs, prescriptions, etc. being among the variables. Let’s examine this a bit. The popular opiate drug for many years was heroin. It is a non-pharmaceutical drug, processed in any of few world locations, transported, and then mixed before being sold. There is no “control” over the concentration or purity of the sold product. So the smart addict will seek pharmaceutical grade opiates. The street has plenty of pills that are available for a price. Drug possession of a prescription drug is no different than a street drug. The “smarter” addict will not go to the street to buy pills, but will patronize doctors to manipulate them into prescribing pills. Unfortunately, this is not too difficult, though doctors who get caught are likely to lose their licenses and end up in jail. The state prescription system is intended to ‘weed” out these drug suppliers, but it is like any other law – it has loopholes.
I have not seen a heroin addict in the frum community for several years. Almost all opiate addicts today are doing pills. It’s a serious problem. The seller (whether dealer or doctor) is a rodef, and should be arrested.