Helping addicts - More beds are needed

WE HAD another example yesterday of the difference between the rhetoric and the reality of our campaign to help those of our fellow citizens unfortunate enough to find themselves addicted to drugs.

A report by an expert group set up by the Health Service Executive finds that we have less than a fifth of the hospital beds needed to detox drug addicts or alcoholics.

This means that a multi-million-euro plan to double the number of beds will still leave a 50% shortfall. The report found that there are 23 hospital detoxification and stabilisation beds, but 127 are needed. We have 634 residential rehabilitation beds, but 887 are required.

Despite an allocation of up to €12.5m in the budget it remains unlikely that we will have the facilities to make a meaningful impact on the crisis anytime soon.