Monash University report reveals rising hospital admissions, million-dollar cost of pharmaceutical opioid overdoses

A surging number of pharmaceutical opioid overdose admissions are taking their toll on Victorian hospitals with almost 13,000 admissions in a decade. Here’s how much the treatment is costing.

Victorian hospitals have been inundated with a surging number of pharmaceutical opioid overdoses and harm, with almost 13,000 admissions in a decade.

The Herald Sun can reveal that 12,771 hospital admissions were recorded between July 2008 and June last year amid concern about the powerful pain management drugs.

Emergency department presentations jumped an average of 3.1 per cent each year during the decade with the highest spike among men aged 45-54.

Victorian hospitals have been inundated with a surging number of pharmaceutical opioid overdoses and harm.

Almost three in five of the hospital admissions were cases of “intentional self-poisoning”, and more than 60 per cent of patients were women.

The figures, revealed today in Monash University Accident Research Centre’s Hazard report, have sparked calls to make “reversal” drug Naloxone more available.

Monash Addiction Research Centre Associate Professor Suzanne Nielsen said the increasing toll of opioid overdose and harm was a “concern”.

More than 1000 Australians died of opioid overdose deaths in 2016, more than double the rate recorded a decade earlier.

“There has been a lot of concern on pharmaceutical opioids so the fact that there has been this increasing trend means we need to keep up the effort,” Assoc Prof Nielsen said.

Turning Point’s Dan Lubman warns more opioids are being prescribed.

The report revealed that codeine, oxycodone and tramadol were the opioids that most often sent Victorians to an emergency department between 2015/16-2017/18.

But some cases involved a mix of the dangerous drugs, most commonly codeine and oxycodone, codeine and tramadol, and oxycodone and tramadol.

The report also laid bare the scourge’s “burden” on the health system with 13,135 “bed days” dedicated to pharmaceutical opioid poisoning across the three years.

And the cost of hospital treatment between July 2015 and June 2017 totalled $16.35 million.

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Turning Point director Professor Dan Lubman warned that Victoria faced an “oversupply of opioids” with more prescribed in the past decade in a bid to deal with people’s pain.

“We are very fortunate to have powerful and effective medication to manage our health,” he said.

“The issue is that some of these drugs have the potential for significant harm if they are over used or used in the wrong way.

“Because they are prescribed, people often underestimate how dangerous they can be.”

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@moniquehore