St Helens made 12,508 prescriptions for methadone last year

This means that the town's prescriptions in 2022 made up more than two per cent of methadone write-ups for the entire country last year.

12,508 prescriptions were written up in St Helens between January and December last year - almost 35 per day for the entire year.

Prescriptions for methadone have fallen in St Helens by around 2.5 per cent in the last year (Image: Radar)

According to the latest dataset, the largest number of prescriptions were written up in December 2022, with 1,178 in that month alone.

However, the latest data does highlight that St Helens has experienced a decrease in the number of prescriptions from 2021, when the total came to 12,835.

This means that the town has seen a decrease of 2.5 per cent in methadone hydrochloride prescriptions in 12 months.

Despite this, St Helens continues to have an exceedingly high number of methadone prescriptions - making up more than two per cent of the country's prescriptions in 2022 alone.

There were 518,000 prescriptions for the opioid addiction treatment made out in England last year - St Helens' prescriptions accounted for 12,508 of these; or, 2.4 per cent.

The cost to the NHS for England's prescriptions last year was approximately £3.3million - meaning that the NHS in St Helens paid around £79,200 in 2022 for methadone prescriptions.

This equates to each prescription costing an average of £6.33 in St Helens.

Martin Blakebrough, chief executive of charity Kaleidoscope which runs drug and alcohol services, said the drop in GP prescriptions for methadone is concerning news.

He added the stigma surrounding drug use means many GPs are reluctant to help opiate users.

Methadone prescriptions have fallen in England by 18 per cent in five years (Image: BBC)

He said: "The big problem from my perspective however is that where possible a person's GP should be able to support their patients and too many are avoiding this responsibility and in effect discharging that responsibility to drug agencies who are primarily tasked in helping those who do not engage in mainstream services."

Professor Tony Avery, NHS England Prescribing national clinical director said: "We need to be alert to the risks of some medicines, particularly when used over a long period of time, and the framework we are publishing today empowers local services to work with people to ensure they are being effectively supported when a medicine is no longer providing overall benefit."

Health minister Neil O'Brien said: "Some opioids are highly addictive and have the potential to cause significant harm."