A £4million ‘free’ heroin scheme run by the NHS has cost taxpayers more than £165,000 per patient and seen 26 overdoses among those who have taken part.

The initiative is aimed at helping those whose addiction is so far advanced that methadone has proved ineffectual.

Only 24 users have taken part in the Enhanced Drug Treatment Service (EDTS), making the cost per person so far around £165,250.

And there have been 26 overdoses among current or former patients since it began in 2019, while 12 addicts have had to be transferred to other support services.

Anti-drugs campaigner Annemarie Ward, from human rights advocacy service FAVOR UK, said: ‘These are grim revelations and they show that spending on ‘heroin-assisted treatment’ is many times more expensive than rehab – a place in rehab costs about £600 a week.

‘Heroin-assisted treatment will be effective for some people but it is very expensive and to what extent can it be said to be working when there are so many overdoses, and the cost is so high? We’re just endlessly giving people more and more drugs – rather than helping them to stop.’

The treatment involves offering pharmaceutical-grade heroin to addicts under medical supervision to try to stop them using street heroin, which may contain deadly impurities.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC), which runs the EDTS, said a total of £3,966,001 had been spent on the scheme by the end of December last year – with 40 per cent of this covering ‘initial set-up costs such as building works and procurement of equipment’.

The health board insisted that ‘monitoring of patients shows that those who complete a year of treatment have very significantly reduced number of overdoses during treatment at EDTS compared to the preceding year’.

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