News

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Drug summit report reveals points for reform

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Late last year, a four-day Drug Summit took place across New South Wales, with a goal to find ‘new ways forward’ to improve the health and wellbeing of communities and people impacted by alcohol and other drugs (AOD).
 
A report of the Summit’s findings has now been released, detailing more than 50 recommendations to reduce AOD harm, including prevention, early intervention, eliminating stigma, community support, and workforce capability and capacity.
 
The report also shows that attendees of the Summit recognise GPs’ critical role in harm reduction from AOD, as they are often the first point of entry to the health system.
 
‘GPs were seen as ideally placed to provide early intervention and referral,’ the report states.
 
‘Some participants called for better training in providing these services, however, the availability of GP prescribers was noted as a significant issue.’
 
More than 550 individuals and 250 organisations were involved in the face-to-face forum, with broad engagement through an online consultation process, including GPs caring for patients who are impacted by AOD.
 
The RACGP positions AOD use through a health lens and supports recommendations intended to reform drug policies to reduce related harm and deaths.
 
Dr Marguerite Tracy is a GP, Deputy Chair of RACGP Specific Interests Addiction Medicine, and also sits on the RACGP Expert Committee – Quality Care.
 
She told newsGP while the reforms are targeted for NSW policy, they should be applied nationwide, given GPs’ central role across all communities.
 
‘A national approach to harm reduction would be appropriate and would improve care and support for people with issues with AOD,’ she told newsGP.
 
‘As GPs we see the vast majority of the community in our practices, we offer holistic care to individuals, including young people, old people, families and diverse communities.
 
‘We are at the frontline of AOD care … but we are often forgotten.
 
‘GPs are among the report’s recommendations as we provide prevention and early intervention. Don’t underestimate how important and life-saving our role is.’
 
A key recommendation from the report is building the workforce to improve the quality and accessibility of AOD services, including:

• attraction, recruitment and retention strategies
• using the lived experience workforce
• implementing workforce diversity focusing on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, culturally and linguistically diverse and LGBTQIA+ people in the AOD sector.

Full implementation of the NSW Alcohol and Other Drugs Workforce Strategy 2024–32 is a priority action for workforce reform.
 
‘The RACGP applauds the recommendation for a 10-year AOD strategy that engages with government, and recommends we have a seat at the table,’ Dr Tracy said.
 
‘We support a focus on equitable access in rural areas, and our rural GP colleagues are at the centre of these communities where better AOD support is needed … as well as a focus on First Nations peoples.
 
‘GPs also have a role in talking to all women of childbearing years about alcohol use to help shift the dial of foetal alcohol spectrum disorder.’
 
In addition to workforce, the report’s 56 recommendations of policy reform for the NSW Government to consider include:
 

• access, integration and design of services
• funding models
• prevention, early intervention and harm reduction
• education
• community support
• stigma and discrimination.

Many Summit attendees also noted the importance of working with and better upskilling the healthcare and social services workforces, saying that current undergraduate, tertiary and vocational training has limited AOD content, which ‘contributes to stigma and a reluctance to work with people who use drugs’.
 
Expanding access to opioid substitution treatment and improved integration with primary care, including increasing the number of GPs who prescribe opioid substitution treatment, is another key report recommendation welcomed by Dr Tracy.
 
‘This is a worthy aim and as a current prescriber, this work is rewarding and engaging and I encourage GP colleagues to do more of this,’ she said.
 
‘We love seeing the benefits of the highly evidence-based and effective treatment that reaps such rewards for patients. In Australia, 10% of GPs prescribe for perhaps 74% of people accessing treatment.
 
‘We quietly and without fuss do this and would love to support our GP colleagues to do this as well.’
 
Additionally, GPs at the Summit made submissions calling for the inclusion of prevention and treatment for addiction in the curriculum and assessable content, and for general practice registrars to be exposed to hospital AOD clinics.
 
The Summit also heard consistent calls, again backed by the RACGP, for harm-reduction and non-stigmatised approaches such as needle and syringe programs, take-home naloxone, and drug-testing sites at public events.
 
RACGP NSW&ACT Chair Dr Rebekah Hoffman said the report is a ‘roadmap for reform’ of AOD use.
 
‘It states that effective, available and affordable treatment for people with substance use or dependence is crucial, and I couldn’t agree more,’ she said.
 
‘Ask almost any GP and they will tell you that many people can’t access the care and support they need.’
 
Dr Hoffman emphasised a non-stigmatised approach and that ‘every life matters’.
 
‘Overdose deaths and drug-related harm don’t happen to “other people’, it could be your friend, partner, child, or colleague,’ she said.
 
‘We look forward to working with the Government to transform AOD policy, including the critical role of GPs.’
 
The NSW Government will consider the report’s findings and is expected to respond in the next six months.
 
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alcohol and other drugs AOD AOD education GP workforce harm reduction illicit drugs NSW drug summit preventive health

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