[The use of services of the physician-on-call by chronic morphine users]

Employment of the doctor on call for administration of morphine to chronic morphine users in a medical district was registered for a period of two years. The group of chronic morphine users imposes considerable stress on the emergency medical system as up to one third of the visits involve administration of morphine. The special circumstances concerning registration and control of morphine therapy are discussed and the necessity of a therapeutic balance is emphasized. Alteration of the procedure of administration of morphine so that the patient's own general practitioner is responsible for prescription of morphine while the doctor on call undertakes the injection has been demonstrated to reduce the number of visits considerably. In this investigation, based on registration of a representative number of visits to chronic morphine users by one doctor, a decrease in visits of this type of 60% was registered.