18-month delay to Elton John-funded needle exchange

A NATIONWIDE needle exchange service for drug addicts — funded by an Elton John charity — has still not been set up, a year and a half after it was announced.

Elton John’s Aids Foundation donated €750,000 to the Government to fund much-needed facilities across the country where intravenous drug users could access clean injecting equipment and health advice.

This was in response to a substantial increase in the number of heroin users outside the Dublin commuter belt and the threat posed by blood-borne viruses, such as HIV and Hepatitis C, spread through the sharing of needles and other equipment.

In September 2009, the Government announced it was setting up needle exchange services at 65 locations thanks to Elton John. The scheme, operating through pharmacies, was due to start in February 2010.

Last November, drugs strategy minister Pat Carey told a conference the system would start “in the next couple of days” and said he hoped it would be the last time he had to say that.

Subsequently, the Department of Community Affairs, which coordinates the drugs strategy, said the roll-out was “expected to begin in early 2011” and the HSE had indicated “all aspects” of the logistics of the programme was “virtually completed”.

It said an interview had been carried out for the position of national liaison pharmacist and that negotiations between the HSE and the Irish Pharmaceutical Union (IPU) were supposed to have been completed.

However, the department said last week the roll out “did not get up and running as soon as anticipated” as negotiations between the HSE and the IPU had not reached agreement.