Trailblazers in the Southwest

Have you checked out the new copy of Network? lots of interesting stuff, much of which has been contributed by you in the South West: there is an excellent piece on Ketamine on the front page from Fergus Law and colleagues in Bristol; an informative article on pain management and addiction in the acute hospital by my colleague and friend Dawn Wintle in Yeovil Hospital (every hospital needs a Dawn Wintle), and an article on Young People's Drug and Alcohol services in Plymouth, By Charlie Lowe and Gerry Woodley.

And a couple of weeks ago I listened in abject admiration to Adam Ellery and Helen Hampton, on how they have set up a Hepatitis C treatment service for their drug using clients in Cornwall. Not (as I assumed) merely a satellite outpost for specialist hepatologists to simply get their medications delivered - but a commissioned, stand alone primary care treatment service for HCV - according to Adam, if you can prescribe methadone then you should be treating your HCV clients at the same time - I am sure this is a most important direction for GP drug misuse services to go in and Adam is showing the rest of the country how to do it well.

Fancy a Job at the SMU?

The RCGP Substance Misuse Unit is looking for a new Lead for the Part 1 Certificate in Drug Misuse - you need to be able to give a notional session a week and develop the course materials which are constantly under review. Even though the academic satisfaction, not to mention the kudos of working with the RCGP (ahem) would be reward enough for anyone, there is half-decent money attached as well - apply to Jo Betterton at the SMU. And we are also looking for Part 2 Tutors.... if you can spare the time. Ask Jo again...

Release Conference 2009

Release's annual conference was convened in Derby this year: for those of you who don't know it, this conference is distinctly different to most as it encourages the delegate to think around subjects that we often ignore. This year there was an excellent presentation from the English Collective of Prostitutes - reminding me for one that "the world's oldest profession" suffers many of the same prejudices and criminal persecution that drug users do, for "crimes" that ultimately only affect themselves. John Strang gave an excellent presentation on naloxone prescribing, and the follies of the legal status of naloxone - something I have banged on about before. We heard about drug consumption rooms and their success in a number of countries around the world (but still not the UK), the upcoming Welfare Reform Bill and many other interesting and important presentations. If you haven't been to a Release Conference then you should - excellent CPD and more mind expanding than most.