Govt to ramp up de-addiction facilities

In a major step towards ramping up deaddiction facilities, government hospitals in the national Capital may soon have OPDs dedicated to treat drug and liquor addicts.

This, along with deployment of mobile units to reach out to junkies at ISBTs and railway stations, are some of the issues being worked on by a panel formed by the Delhi government on drug addiction.

It is learnt that the panel has concluded that separate OPDs for drug and liquor addicts were needed in the medium term, while also focusing on boosting the in-patients facilities. “In many cases you don’t need specialists. Their role comes later. Even doctors with MBBS degrees can deal with them as many of these addicts don’t need to be admitted. In any case, the hospitals are bursting at the seams,” an official said.