Methadone clinic in the pipeline for St. Mary's

The HSE has confirmed this week that it is currently in the process of establishing a methadone clinic to be located on the grounds of St. Mary's Hospital, Mullingar.Funding has been secured and preliminary work is ongoing in the St. Paul's building on site, and it is expected that the facility will be operational by the end of 2011.The clinic will service the areas of Longford and Westmeath and will provide a range of high quality person centred addiction services, including a methadone clinic, GP consult rooms, addiction counselling and urinalysis clinics.According to the Mullingar Drugs Network (MDN), at least twelve people from Mullingar alone travel to Athlone to avail of the methadone programme which is currently available in St. Vincent's Hospital, and return to Mullingar Pharmacy where the prescription is filled. However the MDN say that more than that number travel to Dublin via train to buy street methadone which is unsafe and unregulated, because of the stigma attached to travelling to Athlone for the HSE programme.FOR MORE SEE 15/11 edition