All Attica hospitals to run drug replacement programmes from September 15

All 30 hospitals in Attica, with the exception of childrens’ hospitals, will operate drug replacement therapy programmes for recovering addicts as of September 15, Health and Social Solidarity Minister Andreas Loverdos announced on Thursday in a press conference.
The programme will also include military hospitals, which are to be announced next week.
The minister clarified that every prefecture in the country will be called to select a hospital that will administer methadone.
“We cannot eradicate the use of drugs but we can wage a great battle,” Loverdos said, adding that methadone programmes will also be up and running in hospitals of northern Greece by the start of October at the latest.
The decision to make hospitals operate such programmes was made in a bid to reduce the long waiting lists that the current drug rehabilitation centres lacked the resources and facilities to cope with.
He noted that five detox units were already prepared in Thessaloniki to help some 987 addicted individuals that are on the list. He noted that half of those on the waiting list were migrants and that this was something that Greece’s European partners should be aware of, so that they could help with the overall problems resulting from migration.
The minister also congratulated the families of two patients that donated their organs for transplant operations, as well as the doctors and nursing staff that helped organise the transplants.