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Dr Andrew Pluta: currently retired from opioid prescribing.
- General Practitioner
- A DDU prescriber for over 20 years
- Certified to prescribe HCV treatment and HIV treatment medications.
- Andrew has a commitment to ensuring his patients are well looked after.
Your safety is a key consideration at this clinic. We block the effects of illegal opiod drugs like heroin, oxycodone or codeine with legal medicines authorised by the government: Suboxone, Subutex and Methadone. Many people, because they have a drug problem, often use drugs in unsafe ways. (- maybe seemed a good idea at the time). I try always to keep everyone safe, under all circumstances.
How we work is about following the goverment's rules and guidelines.
Doctors have rules to follow in prescribing these medications.
Patient's have rules to follow in receiving these medicines.
It's all about being as safe as possible even if people stuff up.
Sometimes, while I would like to believe what you tell me, I need to decide what to do on the worst case scenario. Something "unusual" has happened. If this person is too emabrrassed to tell me the truth, what do I need to do to keep them as safe as possible.
Always keep an eye on any friend who may be starting on a programme, because the most dangerous time is early on- before people have had time to stablise on a high enough dose. For safety reasons, we always start low, but try to get your dose up as quickly as safety permits to stop you using as soon as possible.
Dr Peter Dunne (Deceased).
- General Practitioner
- A very experienced Opioid Prescriber specialising in Suboxone dispensation.
- Peter has a friendly unchallenging manner and understands that people do have problems and need treatment.
- Peter recently died. He is greatly missed by staff and his patients. To most of his patients , Peter was one of the constants of their lives. Most Programme patients see their prescriber (doctor) more regularly than other family members and share more basic details of their lives with their prescriber, than sometimes even their partners. The relationship between doctor and prescriber is very important in encouraging people to make progress with their drug problems.
Advantages of Suboxone Over Methadone
- Safer
- Less visits to the chemist are necessary due to the better / easier dosing regime. We can get you to a freer supervision level a lot faster on Suboxone, than with the other medications.
- Suboxone is designed to stop CONSTIPATION. People can become horribly blocked up ( better call it Obstructed), on other opioids. Your entire colon can fill with days worth of fecal material, (because most other opioids, stop you having a shit).
- An easier medicine to detox from. Methadone causes substantially more withdrawal symptoms and in quite unpleasant to reduce on.
- A better blocker to really stop you using.
- Easier and safer to start dosing on. It is quicker to get to a stable effective dose of this medicine than for methadone.
- Dispensed as a film, that is much more transportable than bottles of methadone liquid( which is mixed with cordial or juice). Suboxone is just a much more flexible and convenient alternative. It's also easier to make sure your friends don't steal your "subbie" doses than to stop your friends stealing your methadone: some even water down your methadone to hide what they are doing to you.
- Better dispensing alternative.
Disdvantages of Suboxone Over Methadone
- Lots of people don't like the taste.
- Easier to shoot up.
- Supervised dosing can be a bit scary.
- Quickly stolen by friends- just walking away with a few strips. If you have ever lost something, it can be very difficult to work out where you lost it, and you tend to look again and again. Sometimes, the realisation that a "friend" has taken your "stuff", can be very hard.
There are reasons you chose one medicine over another. I discuss these reasons with you and we chose what will suit your situation the best.