Doctor on leave and I am on vacation 16 hours away!!

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I am a suboxone patient in NH and I am currently on vacation (helping out my sister in N. Carolina with her divorce) and my last visit my docotor was fully aware that I needed to have someone pick up my script for me and mail it to me as I did last year on vacation, but I received a call yesterday that the doc is on a leave indefinitely and uncontactable. They are sending all his patients to another doctor in the area but she has to physically see you to prescribe. The nurse was only able to wish me luck in getting a doc down here for the interim and suggested that I go to ER and get methadone if I cannot get suboxone..THis is unacceptable to me cuz I was addicted to Methadone from a back injury and is how I ended up on Suboxone but I am out of options and not sure what to do..I am very upset with the doctors offices handling of this. I understand that I am out of state and that is not their fault but why is it so hard to manage these situations? I have done everything right and gone thru this for over a year with all 100 percent clean urines and no relapses. I am going to try a local prompt care facility to see if they can help but I just wish the nurse would allow me to call the doctor because he knows my situation and would no doubt take care of it for me. Any suggestions? I will be out by Saturday and don't return home until April 10th a day before my next visit with my AWOL doctor.

Good afternoon, my name is Dee and I am the manager of this forum.
I am sorry to hear that you are having such a problem with provider and getting your medication. When a doctor applies to become a Certified Suboxone Provider they are supposed to make sure that have certain protocols in place in case of emergencies, such a someone on call for their patients in the event of an emergency. See below:

** "Before undertaking the provision of office‐based buprenorphine treatment, physicians should make arrangements to provide comprehensive care and contingency plans for patients who may not be appropriate candidates for this treatment.
In addition, physicians should arrange for other physicians with DATA 2000 waivers to be available to provide care to the treating physician’s opioid addiction patients in the treating physician’s absence (e.g., while on vacation)."

I would suggest that you call the office again and ask for the phone number of the doctor that is treating the patients while your doctor is out of the office. See if you can arrange for your records to be sent to the new doctor and ask for that doctor to call you.
If you doctor knew in advance that you would be out of town there should be some sort of notation in your file to that effect if so, maybe that doctor can do something to help you out. I don't know if that will work but it is worth a try.
I know this is kind of late but your doctor could have also put refills on your original prescription so that it could have been refilled. Some doctors say they can't put refills on Suboxone but that's not true. They can.
I don't know if going to a hospital and asking for Methadone would work for you. But you can try to locate a Methadone clinic near where you are staying that offers Suboxone. Maybe if you talk to them you can arrange for them to treat you while you are there. That would be better than going back on Methadone, you don't really want to do that unless you have to. If you start taking Methadone now you will have to go through the induction period of re starting Suboxone once you get back into town.
Please let me know how things turn out for you. And please don't give up. You have come to far to let this stop your recovey.
Remember we are here for you if you need to talk.
You can always send me an email or pm if you need to.

** Clinical Guidelines for the Use of Buprenorphine in the Treatment of Opioid Addiction Treatment Improvement Protocol TIP 40,
published by the U.S. Department Of Health And Human Services SAMHSA and CSAT:

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