Haslam in call for action on addiction

ANTI-TRANQUILLISER campaigner Barry Haslam will today meet shadow health secretary Andy Burnham to press for more help for addicts.

Barry, chairman of Oldham Tranx, is in London with a member of the group addicted to prescription drugs.

They have been invited to a Select Committee-style seminar organised by Addiction Dependency Solutions and chaired by Mr Burnham. The seminar brings together a panel of doctors, service users and experts with direct experience of addiction to prescription drugs and treatments.

Mr Haslam and the Oldham Tranx member will be among those who talk about their views and experiences, followed by a debate and questions from MPs.

The seminar aims to highlight the scale of the problem to MPs and show them the effects of addiction while revealing examples of good practice.

Mr Haslam said: “It should be very interesting because it is much more political than previously.

Withdrawal. I will be on the panel alongside a member of Tranx, and I will push strongly for more (clinical commissioning groups) to commission prescribed drug withdrawal services, as in the case in Oldham and now South Derbyshire. If Oldham and Derby can do it, so can every CCG in England.”

He criticised Public Health England (PHE) which he said insisted it was a local issue: “It is a national issue and PHE should be giving a national directive and lead on this massive public health problem,” he said.