A local palliative care expert says a recent provincial government announcement concerning high doses of long-acting opioids "came out of the blue" and will create difficulties for doctors trying to provide pain management for the dying.
Ontario will stop paying for large dose pills of morphine and hydromorphone, as well as high dose patches of fentanyl for those aged 65 and older, on social assistance or in long-term care facilities.
Medical Director of St. Joseph's Hospice Dr. Glenn Maddison, says there's very little abuse of these drugs in palliative care patients and it's simply not fair to the dying who cannot afford to pay for the pain pills.
"I have a patient right now who is on 300 micrograms of fentanyl ," he says. "I would either have to have him pay for that or, the other option which is silly, is that we would have to use a 50 microgram patch and he would have to have six on at a time. I would literally have to wallpaper the person. It just isn't practical."
He says a better scenario would be for the province to allow doctors treating patients in palliative care to have access to high doses of opioids though the current Palliative Care Facilitated Access program.
