A KwaZulu -Natal South Coast doctor has been suspended for allegedly abusing pethidine, a highly addictive prescription drug.
The provincial health department confirmed yesterday that the doctor was suspended from the GJ Crookes Hospital in Scottburgh.
Department spokesman Chris Maxon refused to divulge the details, but hospital insiders claimed the doctor was allegedly caught stealing the drug for his own use.
"The doctor has been reported to the Health Professions Council of South Africa and the Special Investigating Unit," Maxon said.
"The internal disciplinary inquiry is continuing.
"More information cannot be divulged at this stage as it will jeopardise the process," Maxon said
Psychologist and director at Houghton House Rehab Centre Dan Wolf said that in the past few years he had counselled several doctors with serious pethidine addictions.
"There certainly have been a number of incidents when we have treated doctors with addictions. The drug is highly addictive and freely available to them, so they can freely abuse it," he said.
In most cases, Wolf said, doctors start to use the drug for pain relief.
"It can start as back or neck pain, and because they know how the drug works and have opiates at their fingertips, it is easy for them to get addicted," he said.
nairn@thetimes.co.za
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