Blondell Says Gosy Patients Should Meet With Primary Care Providers

Updated May 19, 2016 This content is archived.

Richard D. Blondell, MD, professor and vice chair for addiction medicine in the Department of Family Medicine, talks about the unexpected shutdown of an Amherst pain management practice that has sent thousands of patients scrambling to find new doctors. Finding a new doctor to prescribe pain medications might not be so easy, he said.

“Overnight, people’s licit drug problem becomes an illicit problem, which is what we want to avoid,” Blondell said. “We have to plead with the primary care doctors to try to get them in and make the appropriate referral. Don’t just kick them out and turn them over to the street dealers.”