ACT Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris says she was not briefed by the health directorate about an almost five-year delay to a review of the territory's opioid treatment guidelines.
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Her comments followed The Canberra Times reporting Tuesday that the guidelines governing methadone prescribing in the prison and community were three years' overdue for review when an indigenous man died in custody last year.
While the review was meant to be completed by September 2012, it was delayed to take into account new national guidelines completed in 2014.
But ACT Health has not clarified why they had not been updated in the three years since those guidelines were released, nor clarified when the advisory committee that oversees the guidelines last met.
Ms Fitzharris on Tuesday said the existing guidelines "still provide clear clinical guidance" for doctors, the delay in finishing the review was "regrettable".
"While ACT Health has not briefed me directly on this matter, I have requested a thorough briefing by the end of this week," she said.
"I will also ask that ACT Health provide a clear path towards resolving the review within two weeks of the briefing."
While the existing guidelines are still in place across the prison system and wider ACT community, they have not been officially updated since they were passed by the legislative assembly in 2010.
ACT Opposition leader Alistair Coe on Tuesday told ABC Radio the delay showed the government "does not have its hands on the wheel" of rehabilitation in the justice system.
"It seems that either its due to neglect or its due to the very complacent or apathetic attitude," he said.
"Things like the review that was meant to be done four or five years ago, this shows the government does not have its hands on the wheel when it comes to rehabilitation."
Ms Fitzharris said the review of the guidelines would be "finalised by ACT Health as soon as possible", and would be informed by the 2014 updated national guidelines.
"The community can be assured the delay does not impact the care that is provided by our clinical staff," she said.
Justice Minister Shane Rattenbury also told ABC he was also "pursuing" the issue as it related to inmate health and that there had been also been "significant improvements" to the methadone program in the Alexander Maconochie Centre in the past year.
He said that "things have not been static" on the AMC's methadone program through "quality improvement processes".
It is understood many changes made in the past year were part of the government's response to an independent inquiry by Philip Moss into the death in custody of Steven Freeman in the prison, which is now the subject of a coronial inquest.
