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Dept of Health

Answer

Mr. Streeter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what assessment he has made of the impact of the closure of the Harbour Drug and Alcohol Service in Plymouth to new clients until April 2005 on the treatment of patients with addiction problems; [199108] (2) what the waiting time is in Plymouth for a person suffering from drug or alcohol addiction to receive treatment; and if he will make a statement. [199109] Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department has not made an assessment of the impact of the changes to the Harbour Drug and Alcohol Service. It is the responsibility of primary care trusts, working with the local drug and alcohol action teams, to plan and develop local drug and alcohol services and ensure that these meet local needs. The Harbour Drug and Alcohol Service is not closing, but I understand that a decision was made recently to temporarily suspend the specialist prescribing service on the ground of clinical safety. The latest available information on waiting times for drug treatment in Plymouth is shown in the table. The Department does not hold information on waiting times for alcohol services. _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Waiting time (weeks) Inpatient 12 Residential rehabilitation 2 Specialist prescribing 0.2 General practitioner prescribing 0.8 Day care 1 Structured counselling 0.2 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Source: National Treatment Agency.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

426 c1961-2W;426 c1967W; 199108;199109

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Alcoholic drinks Closures Drugs Plymouth Misuse Rehabilitation Waiting lists Rehabilitation centres

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk