A woman whose drug use was so severe it almost killed her was told by healthcare professionals she was not ‘ready’ for rehab because they would not give her the funding.
Stephanie Ritchie told the BBC that she was dying after she got blood poisoning from taking drugs intravenously, but medical professionals would still not secure a bed for her in a rehabilitation facility.
She has since thanked a recovery charity, who appealed against their decision, for saving her life.
Stephanie said although she had nowhere safe to live, and doctors were considering amputating her leg because the infection was so severe, they would still not give the funding to put her into rehab.
She told the BBC:
“I was in a really bad way. They were going to amputate my leg because I had been injecting cocaine intravenously.
“I needed rehab really badly but my care managers wouldn’t give me the funding for rehab.
“I don’t know how much more ready I could have been. I was dying.”
Stephanie only got the help she needed thanks to recovery charity Sisco, who appealed to find her a rehab place.
Natalie Logan, from Sisco, said:
“You could be at the end of your life and about to lose a limb like Stephanie and we would still have to fight to get you a rehab place.”
It was Natalie’s call for help on social media that was answered by a new residential rehab centre which offered Stephanie a free place.
Now aged 40, Stephanie is drug-free for the first time since she got hooked on drugs in a children’s home in the Scottish Borders when she 11.
“Rehab worked,” she said. “I have got my family back. I have got my daughter back in my life.”
Stephanie has since received an apology from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde about her care.
Campaigning for more
Campaigners are now calling for everyone who needs it to have the right to access addiction recovery services in Scotland.
On Wednesday, the Scottish Conservatives are publishing a bill which, if passed, would give anyone diagnosed as having a drug or alcohol addiction the right to the treatment doctors deem appropriate – within weeks.
Under the bill, services would have to explain in writing their reasons for not providing the treatment and could be held to account.
It says treatment cannot be refused based on cost, history of alcohol misuse or ongoing misuse of substances.
The Scottish Conservatives’ Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill has been written alongside frontline drugs support workers, including the head of addiction charity FAVOR UK, Annemarie Ward.
She said the bill would give people at “death’s door” the treatment they needed and deserved.
Further reading
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