North Richmond Community Health’s response to the Hamilton Review of the medically supervised injecting room.
The Hamilton Review has concluded that the NRCH MSIR is saving lives and changing lives.
On Friday 5 June 2020, the Hamilton Review into the progress of the initial two-year trial of the medically supervised injecting room was released.
NRCH welcomes the findings of the Hamilton Review Panel and supports the recommendation to extend the North Richmond medically supervised injecting room trial for another three years.
We also support the establishment of an additional medically supervised injecting room in the City of Melbourne.
We are inspired by the independent Panel’s conclusions that the MSIR has successfully saved lives and changed lives. These positive findings are a credit to the years of hard work by frontline workers at MSIR and local supporters of NRCH.
More specifically, the Review Panel has concluded that the MSIR has;
- saved at least 21 lives in its first 18 months;
- safely managed over 2,657 overdoses;
- provided 13,000 health and social support interventions for issues like dental, housing, family violence and drug rehabilitation;
- taken significant pressure off emergency departments;
- reduced ambulance callouts; and
- reduced reports of public injections in North Richmond.
NRCH acknowledges that there is more work to be done to improve local amenity.
We welcome the opportunity to work with residents and stakeholders to establish neighbourhood improvement projects funded by a $9 million state government investment.
Over time, MSIR will also enhance its employment, housing, health, and social services to get more people off heroin and into a better life.
