Availability of Opioid Substitution Treatment (OST) in Norway

"The Norwegian OST programme was established in 1998. It was run by 14 centres in the four health regions until 2010. Special guidelines were introduced from 1 January 2010, which emphasised, among other things, that OST should be integrated in the ordinary specialist health service (see NR 2010 Chapter 11). The basic model of a tripartite collaboration comprising social security offices, GPs and the specialist health service was retained, and the indication for OST shall be assessed by the specialist health service.
"Integration of OST in the health trusts was completed in 2011. OST centres are no longer a separate type of measure, and the system of special decision-making powers has been discontinued. The health trusts’ admission bodies have been given overriding authority. Each health trust shall have a body that makes an overall assessment of whether OST is the correct treatment option, but how this is organised is decided by the health trusts. The same applies to how the treatment start-up and stabilisation shall take place. Following the change, OST has been established as a separate unit with a separate management in some places, as a dedicated team in other places, and in yet others as an integral part of the interdisciplinary specialist treatment without a separate management over and above a coordinator."