Second Melbourne injecting room in limbo as Andrews walks back commitment

Plans for a second safe-injecting room in Melbourne’s CBD are in limbo after Premier Daniel Andrews said the site was not guaranteed and depended on the outcome of an overdue review.

The government introduced legislation on Tuesday to make the North Richmond injecting room permanent, after the facility saved an estimated 63 lives since a trial began in 2018, but would not give a timeframe for the promised CBD facility.

The former Yooralla building in Flinders Street has sat empty since it was bought by the government for a reported $40.3 million in 2021. It was the government’s preferred location for a second injecting room because of its proximity to drug use and overdoses.

Former police commissioner Ken Lay is reviewing locations in the CBD and will release his report in the middle of the year after being repeatedly delayed by COVID-19 and what Andrews described as changing drug patterns.

“We bought a building. We think there’s a strong case to have a second injecting facility. However, it’s got to be at the right location,” the premier said.

His support for a second facility had not changed, he said, but he would wait for Lay’s report before committing.

The North Richmond safe-injecting room will remain open permanently.Credit: Eddie Jim

Asked whether the government would definitely open a second injecting room, Andrews said: “No, I don’t think that’s the case at all.”

Nearby residents and businesses have expressed their frustration at the almost three-year delay in producing the report.

Theo Roussos, who runs The Quarter cafe in Degraves Street, which is around the corner from the proposed CBD site, said Flinders Street was not appropriate for an injecting room.

“It will tarnish the name of the street, the reputation of the street, especially internationally,” he said. “If Richmond is anything to go by, I think it will be an absolute disaster down here.”

Ambulance callouts for heroin-related incidents in the City of Melbourne overtook those in the City of Yarra for the first time in 2021-22.

The number of ambulance callouts in the CBD area was 390, up from 305 the previous year but below the 2019-20 high of 423. In the City of Yarra, heroin-related ambulance callouts in 2021-22 were down to 317, from a high of 682 in 2018-19.

Nicole Bartholomeusz, chief executive of cohealth, the health provider selected to manage the proposed CBD facility, said drug use and overdoses were as bad, if not worse, than before the pandemic.

“We are heartbroken about the number of lives that continue to be lost from drug overdoses, especially because we know that if a supervised injecting service was available, a great number of those people may still be alive,” she said.

The North Richmond facility safely managed almost 6000 overdoses, according to an independent review by public health researcher John Ryan.

There were 50 heroin-related deaths in the City of Yarra in the 42 months after the room opened, down from 68 deaths in the 42 months prior. In 2016 alone, 34 people overdosed and died in the area.

The room was visited almost 350,000 times between June 2018 and September 2022, by more than 6000 people.

Ryan’s report was critical of the state’s “under-resourced” pharmacotherapy system – the use of medication such as methadone to treat opioid addiction – which Andrews said he would look at.

There were just 50 patients receiving pharmacotherapy in the public system in Victoria in 2021 compared with 8498 in NSW. Across both private and public sectors, there were 14,804 pharmacotherapy patients in Victoria and 24,340 in NSW in 2021, despite comparable need.

“These figures paint a picture of an under-resourced Victorian pharmacotherapy system requiring far greater public funding, with access to pharmacotherapy in need of urgent expansion,” the report said.

More than 700 people have successfully commenced opioid agonist treatment through the North Richmond facility.

The spread of hepatitis C, ambulance callouts and pressure on neighbouring hospitals also fell.

A spokesman for the North Richmond Community Health centre said it was incredibly proud of the service’s achievements.

The state opposition, which has been critical of opening the existing facility next to Richmond West Primary School, said the government should focus more on assisting people off drugs.

The government said it would strengthen access to social housing and mental health services through the North Richmond site. It also committed to improving amenity by increasing outreach work to reduce the number of people still injecting and discarding needles in public.

“But let’s be clear about this, this community had a massive overdose problem, and we have done something about that. Is it universally popular? No. Is there more that we can do? Of course there is,” Andrews told reporters.

The government will consider all 10 recommendations from Ryan’s review. But it has ruled out enacting a recommendation to expand eligibility to peer and partner injecting, allowing pregnant women to inject, and removing other barriers including to people on court orders.

Opposition Leader John Pesutto said the government had failed to listen to residents concerned about the centre’s “inappropriate” location.

One resident told the review panel they saw “fights, brazen drug deals, drug use, drug-affected people” while walking their daughter to school.

But a client of the injecting room, 46-year-old Ron, said it was a “blessing” to have a safe space to inject.

Judy Ryan, who lives near the corner of Victoria and Lennox streets and campaigned for a safe-injecting room, said the local amenity had improved and she was pleased the room would be made permanent.

“But some won’t be, and I understand that as well,” Ryan said.

“Is it perfect? Has it been the panacea for everything for our community? ... the answer’s no.”

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