Safe Injecting Rooms North Richmond

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.

Safe injecting rooms north richmond. Officials from the department of health and human services met overnight to discuss allegations two workers at the controversial safe injecting room in richmond had been dealing drugs. Debate over whether the injecting room should be relocated or shut down has intensified after an outreach worker from the needle exchange program at north richmond community health centre was charged with trafficking heroin. Reason party mlc fiona patten helped pave the way for the richmond safe injecting room. A cartoon by mark knight in the herald sun described the injecting room as the residential chernobyl.

It should be located in a commercial area as all others in the world are easy to medically supervise. With 4 350 clients registering since the trial started the facility is now the biggest supervised injecting room in australia. 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. The victorian government is trialling a medically supervised injecting room at the north richmond community health site in north richmond melbourne.

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. The department of health and human services is coordinating a trial of a medically supervised injecting room at north richmond community health. The location of the injecting room at north richmond community health centre is right next to a school and in the middle of a residential area the petition signed by more than 700 people reads. 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.