WORKERS CALL FOR HEROIN OVERHAUL

Health workers in the dumped Caroline Lane needle exchange service in
Redfern have called for radical changes to the Government's drug policy.

The call came in a Health Department review released
yesterday.

Staff have raised the need for safe injecting rooms, controlled heroin
trials and highlighted the lack of detoxification, treatment and
rehabilitation, especially for young drug users.

The review followed a decision by the Minister for Health, Dr
Refshauge, to suspend the Caroline Lane service after a newspaper
published photos on January 31 of a 16-year-old injecting drugs.

In response to the review's findings, Dr Refshauge yesterday announced
new services for drug users in Redfern.

They include a mobile drug and alcohol unit run by the Kirketon Road
Centre, the Redfern Aboriginal Legal Service and the Central Sydney
Health Service.

The unit will offer counselling, referral, treatment and a needle
exchange program. It will be purpose-built and staffed by experts and
Aboriginal community representatives.

Dr Refshauge said although the review found no breach of guidelines in
needle syringe programs, it was inappropriate to continue without
appropriate facilities. He said there had also been incidents when
boxes of syringes had been left unattended.

"Clearly it would have been inappropriate to re-open the Caroline
Street service," Dr Refshauge said.

However the Opposition spokeswoman on health, Mrs Jillian Skinner,
said the Government had known about problems with the Caroline Lane
service since 1996 and had done nothing.

"This latest move does nothing to address the basic need to help
people get free from the addiction," she said.

The review said the Caroline Street Needle and Syringe Service, in
what is popularly called The Block in Redfern, was one of the busiest
in NSW, with 6,000 clients using an average 38,000 needles and
syringes a month.

Staff on the service said there was a need for safe injecting rooms,
controlled heroin trials and more places on methadone programs.

In the report, the director of health services, Dr Greg Stewart, and
the director of the Kirketon Road Centre, Dr Ingrid van Beek, said
there were many problems with the previous Caroline Street program.
Two major concerns were that the program had used a car as the needle
exchange point and there had been no access to running water.

"There is no evidence that staff have breached department policies and
procedures in this instance," they said.

"However there may be a perception of conflict between the operating
procedures for the needle and syringe program and government policies
relating to child protection."