NYC To Restrict Access To Painkillers In Public Hospital EDs.

The New York Times (1/11, Hartocollis, Subscription Publication) reports that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Thursday a new city policy that will no longer allow most public hospitals patients to get "more than three days' worth of narcotic painkillers like Vicodin and Percocet. Long-acting painkillers, including OxyContin, a familiar remedy for chronic backache and arthritis, as well as Fentanyl patches and methadone, will not be dispensed at all." City officials explained the "policy was aimed at reducing the growing dependency on painkillers and preventing excess amounts of drugs from being taken out of medicine chests and sold on the street or abused by teenagers and others who want to get high." Critics warn that the restrictions "could deprive doctors in the public hospital system - whose mission it is to treat poor people - of the flexibility that they need to respond to patients."

        Bloomberg News (1/11, Pettypiece) reports that the move is designed to reduce overdoes and prescription painkiller abuse. "The number of emergency room visits in New York related to painkillers almost tripled in 2010 from 2004 to 143 visits for every 100,000 people, the city said. The use of painkillers without a medical need in the U.S. increased 75 percent in 2010 from 2002, the Archives of Internal Medicine reported. More than 15,500 people overdosed on the pills and died in 2009, more than double since 2002, the study found."

        The New York Daily News (1/11, Durkin) notes that "emergency rooms will also be barred from refilling prescriptions that patients say were lost or stolen."