KINGS CROSS INJECTING ROOM FAILS TO REDUCE OVERDOSE DEATH RATES

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.