GPs are being blindsided by patients on the road to opioid dependence following hospital discharge, with few receiving management plans or accurate information, a new study suggests.

Despite the focus on minimising opioid supply to surgical patients, many are still being discharged with opioids but with little or no information on how long they should expect to stay on the drug.

The study retrospectively examined the summaries for 258 opioid-naïve patients who had undergone surgery at an unnamed 980-bed metro hospital and were discharged in January 2018.

Just 13% of the summaries contained an opioid management plan, though this description was being generous because not every plan contained sufficient information for GPs to properly manage their patients, the researchers from the Austin Hospital and Monash University, both in Melbourne, said.