North Richmond Safe Injecting Room

North richmond safe injecting centre opens after mass overdose deaths in a small inner city suburb of melbourne drug use is rampant and flagrant.

North richmond safe injecting room. With the high numbers of victorians losing their lives to drug related overdoses the medically supervised injecting room msir is a safety first medical approach focused on harm reduction. The department of health and human services is coordinating a trial of a medically supervised injecting room at north richmond community health. It can also provide a gateway for people who inject drugs to access other health and social. The north richmond medically supervised injecting room has come under fire from residents who have reported drug users nearby to the centre flouting strict covid 19 rules.

Dr nico clark medical director of north richmond s safe injecting room takes newsgp through the facility as it approaches its sixth month of operation. North richmond community health where the facility is housed sits within the so called rectangle of death where as many as 20 of all victorian heroin overdose deaths occur. Jenny 19 06 2019 10 25 22 pm. The medically supervised injecting room at north richmond community health opened in july 2019.

North richmond has been the hub of victoria s heroin trade for two decades and a safe injecting room was recommended by the coroner after a spate of drug related deaths in the area. It is debatable whether the centre is saving lives. What is not debatable is that locating its entrance 20 metres from a primary school entrance adjacent to a maternal health centre close to a childcare centre and in the middle of a public housing. The facility aims to reduce the high amount of victorian drug overdose deaths.

A medically supervised injecting room is a place where people can inject drugs of dependence in a supervised health setting. The victorian government is trialling a medically supervised injecting room at the north richmond community health site in north richmond melbourne. The service was established for an initial two year trial period which will be extended for a further three years based on the evidence gathered in the initial period. But the solution has caused division among locals.