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.