Sydney injecting room of no effect.

[Nooby]

THE Kings Cross safe injecting centre made no difference at all to overdose death rates in its local area in its first five years of operation.

 

Statistics show death rates from drug overdose in the area around the injecting room are no less than in other areas across NSW.

 

The findings into the $2.5 million-a-year facility are contained in an unreported independent evaluation that studied autopsy rates.

 

The report assessed overdose deaths from heroin, morphine and other opioids in those postcodes - 2010 and 2011 - near the injecting centre and concluded that deaths rates fell at the same rate they did elsewhere in NSW.

 

The most likely conclusion is that the falls were the likely result of the heroin drought.

 

Between the period May 1, 2001, and May 1, 2006, deaths fell from an average four a month to one a month in the two postcodes adjacent to the injecting centre. But elsewhere in the state there were also sharp falls - from an average 28 deaths a month to eight.

 

"In both groups, there was approximately a 70 per cent decrease in average monthly deaths from the period prior to the MSIC opening and the period following its establishment," the report concluded. It is widely acknowledged that a heroin drought, or a shortage of the drug on the streets, over the past decade - partly due to effective policing - has led to steadily falling heroin deaths everywhere.

 

The findings in the report, Evaluation Report No. 4: Evaluation of service operation and overdose-related events, concludes the difference in deaths in the local area and the rest of NSW "were not statistically significant".

 

The analysis of opioid-related deaths was based on autopsy reports supplied by the Division of Analytical Laboratories, managed by the Sydney West Area Health Service.

 

A Freedom of Information request seeking to update the figures, using the same overdose death rates determined by autopsy, has to date been unsuccessful. Meanwhile, the SWAHS is claiming that release of the same data by postcode and statewide was likely to be an unreasonable diversion of resources.

 

The centre's lack of success in saving lives clashes with its stated primary objective "to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with drug overdoses". However, the centre had reduced ambulance call-outs to suspected overdoses and opioid-related poisonings at local hospital emergency departments.

 

Centre spokeswoman Mardi Stewart said ambulance callouts were a "more sensitive indicator" of the centre's effectiveness.

 

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/stor...5001021,00.html

 

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